the rise of the digital agethe rapid growth of social media and how it is transforming

the way businesses and consumers communicate.

cover inage: Digital Blur, 2014. By Pattern Bank

“Social media is no longer a disruptive force. Instead it is a vital business component. Rather than being resisted, social media is now being

woven into the very fabric of business.”Scoble & Israel, Age of Context

contents

0810141822

introduction

methodology

chapter 1the development of the social media landscape

chapter 2new millennials on social media

chapter 3brands on social media

26 chapter 4new technologies

32 chapter 5big data

36384448

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conclusion

recommendations for designer forum

references & illustrations

bibliography

appendices

recommendations

51Appendix 1 - ‘how does social media affect your actions, opinions & decisions? survey’appendix 2 - ‘how do you interact with brands online?’ surveyappendix 3 - kate tyler email interviewappendix 4 - neville hobson interviewappendix 5 - jordan mann interviewappendix 6 - emma griffiths interviewappendix 7 - designer forum company profileappendix 8 - visual inspirationappendix 9 - critical path

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62:

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68:75:76:77:

78:80:

introduction

8

In 2006, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel predicted the evolution of blogging in their book ‘Naked Conversations’.

During the seven years since the publishing of this book, we have seen an incalculable transformation in the digital world, most commonly known as social media. The development of social networking websites has witnessed a growing generation of digitally native people, recently coined as ‘New Millennials’, to whom social media is indispensable. In tandem with this newly found generation, the social media landscape is drastically changing the way brands do business. In a recent research conversation with Neville Hobson, one of the first people in Europe to blog and who works under the title ‘Independent Communication Consultant’, he stated that social media and the digital landscape as it is now is only phase one; this culture is growing at a rapid pace and Hobson believes that businesses that are used to dealing with generation X and Baby Boomers are “having trouble understanding the landscape that generation Y inhabits”. He believes that “those who don’t, or choose to ignore, what is happening will not be around in ten years time.” (Hobson, 2013)

From my conversation with Hobson and other sources of secondary research, I have determined that although social media has been at the forefront of communication for a number of years now, businesses still do not understand how to use it or how to create the authentic relationship that consumers seek from brands; ‘they want to see the more human aspect of brands.’ (Stylus, 2013:online) I have witnessed firsthand through my internship at Designer Forum, a trend forecasting membership organisation, the lack of comprehension of social media from the perspective of someone running a business and creating a brand identity. If digital is our future, where does it leave businesses that cannot grasp social or choose to ignore it?

At a recent discussion held at Google Campus, authors Scoble and Israel talked about their new book, Age Of Context. The book brings to light how rapidly technological and digital advancements are shaping our lives and how this will affect not only businesses but also our individual lives, too.

Israel implies that businesses do not have a choice when it comes to the world of social media and digital marketing, and in order to survive, it is absolutely essential that businesses – and individuals – are aware of how the development of digital technology is going to transform the world we live in today.

New Millennials, also referred to as Digital Natives, Generation Y or the iGeneration, have grown up engulfed in a world fuelled by technology, digital and social media. In the book Mastering Fashion Marketing, authors Tim Jackson and David Shaw note that “generation y have been referred to ‘prosumers’…they are ‘marketing-smart’ and do not respond well to conventional brand communications.” (Jackson & Shaw, 2009, p.11) This shows how important it is consider new millennials in relation to social media whilst looking at older generations to show the development and shaping of this one. In light of the forward thinking nature of this report, I centred my research around new millennials throughout, not only to create context but also because this generation typically has the most understanding of the social media landscape and is leading the transformation of business in relation to digital developments.

The overall aim of my report is to enlighten and educate businesses that struggle with or do not think they need an online presence whilst exploring the generation who will head the future of social media alongside the imminent changes that are transforming the way that brands and businesses communicate today.

We believe that blogging is not just wise for businesses wishing to be closer with their customers, but essential. We envision a day in the near future when companies that don’t blog will be held suspect to some degree, with people wondering whether those companies have something to hide. (Scoble, Israel, 2006, p.1) I don’t think there’s a modern company

that doesn’t have social media, not just as a marketing strategy but also as a go-forward strategy… Both of us agree that whether you like what is happening or not, this is happening, and you need to understand what is happening. (Israel, 2013)

9

methodology

10

The initial idea for this report arose when I read an article about new millennials and narcissism - Generation Me, Myself and I in 125 Magazine. I went on to carry out substantial

primary and secondary research on the subject of narcissism being linked to social media but started to find that actually, narcissism is not a new thing, new millennials just use

different platforms to express it. I felt the idea showed a negative side to social media and did not have as much scope as I would have liked. After listening to the Age of Context podcast by Scoble and Israel, I felt motivated to base my report around social media in

relation to the struggling business; how is social media perpetually transforming the way business is done?

objectives

•How is the social media landscape developing?•How are companies changing the way they do

business as a result of social media?•What are the consequences for businesses that do

not integrate social media and digital marketing into their marketing strategies?

•How does new millennials’ use of social media differ from older generations?

•What is the future for businesses in relation to technological and communicational advancements?

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Primary ResearchI gathered primary research in the form of surveys and observations as well as a range of interviews with experts and consumers to understand how businesses and individuals use social media today and where it will take us in the future. Implementing primary research enabled me to observe real life users of social media to gain authentic insights that represent the real digital consumer.

For my online surveys, I used convenience sampling (Davies, 2007) to collect a large amount of responses that represented realistic trends within the social media society. I used Facebook, Twitter and email to share my survey and in the interest of making its responses fair and balanced, I asked people of different ages, genders and occupations to share my survey as well as using the hashtag function on Twitter to make my survey findable through searches. Overall, my first survey received one hundred responses (see ‘Conducted Primary Research’) and my second survey received 48 responses, allowing me to achieve a reliable understanding of how people use social media as well as their feelings about it.

Throughout all of my interviews, I chose judgmental sampling (Explorable, 2014:online) to pick my interviewees. I felt this was the most necessary type of sampling for interviewing as it allowed me to choose people who know a lot about social media or who use it extensively on a daily basis. I interviewed two professionals, both working in the social media and digital marketing sectors. It was essential to reach out to specialists as it permitted me to gather expert values and opinions from people who have acquired considerable knowledge of the industry over time. My interviews with Kate Tyler and Neville Hobson were invaluable in writing my report as the responses were greatly revealing, enabling me to understand the social media landscape and the consumer landscape in detail. I also chose consumers to interview by observing who used social media regularly and interacted with brands via the same medium so that I could ask them questions about how they use their chosen social media platforms to follow brands and purchase products.

Secondary ResearchI used secondary research to validate my thoughts and ideas on my chosen subject and confirm the findings within my primary research. Although I did use a handful of books, in which Age of Context was a key piece of reading, I mainly used articles and reports from a variety of areas including magazines, newspapers and trend forecasting websites to form my secondary research. I set up Google Alerts to consistently keep me in touch with timely and relevant information and stories to retain a forward-thinking tone. I also listened to podcasts and watched Ted Talks to maintain a good range of opinions and views.

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online survey: ‘how does social media affect your actions, opinions & decisions?’

Carried out over three months and shared via social media platforms and email (See Appendix 1)

online survey: ‘how do you interact with brands?’ Carried out over one month and share via social media platforms and email

(See Appendix 2)interview with kate tyler, shake social

Social Media Consultant at Shake Social. via email – 6th November 2013 (See Appendix 3)

interview with neville hobson, independent communication consultant

Via telephone – 15th November 2013 (See Appendix 4)

interview with jordan mann (social media user) Various Forms – 8th November 2013

(See Appendix 5)interview with emma griffiths (social media user)

via Facebook – 8th November 2013 (See Appendix 6)

conducted primary research

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1the development of the social media landscape

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The earliest citation of the term ‘social media’ is from 1997, when Ted Leonsis, an AOL executive, was quoted using the phrase in a discussion about the need for a

place for people to communicate and be entertained. (Bercovici, 2010:online) But at this time, social media was not a commonly used term; it did not really take off as a widely understood phrase until the mid 2000s. At the Google Campus Event, Israel

(2013) explained how social media became bigger than they predicted in Naked Conversations; “at that time, the word ‘social media’ didn’t exist, it was just blogging,

podcasts had started, wikis were going to be the big enterprise of social media.”

Over the last decade, social media has grown exponentially and continues to do so with the expansion of social networking websites, smartphones, tablets and now even wearable technology like the Google Glass. The social media landscape (see fig.1) is now so vast it is almost incomprehensive, ranging from location-based networks like

Foursquare, to social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter, to image sharing platforms like Instagram and the more recent social phenomenon, Snapchat. The

landscape moves beyond these spectrums and even includes publishing websites like Wikipedia & Blogger and video sharing tools like YouTube & Vimeo. To grasp just how large the social media landscape has become, I can tell you that by the end of 2013,

there were more mobile-connected devices than people on earth, 90% of Internet traffic will be video by 2017 (Slideshare, 2013:online) and Twitter has one billion tweets

every thirty-six hours. (Scoble, 2013).

fig. 1: The social media landscape 2013, by fredcavazza.net, 2013

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In a lecture with Sedge Beswick, Global Social Media Manager at ASOS, she implicated the importance of understanding the social media landscape by

explaining how social networking websites differ from one another. Using an easily understandable infographic, she explained that in the context of business, different

platforms should be used in different ways. (See fig. 2)

It is vital that businesses today take the time to understand the social media landscape, as different social networking sites have different audiences, and

different platforms work better for different people and generations. You need to know where in the landscape your target audience is, because that is where you

will find consumers to connect with and establish relationships.

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14

“i like my cat”

“i am playing with my cat”

“watch this video of my cat”

“here’s a hipster picture of my cat”

“i am very skilled at training cats”

FIG 2: SOCIAL MEDIA INFOGRAPHIC, CHLOE TAYLOR, 2014.

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2new millenials on social media

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Alongside the importance of understanding the social media landscape, it is also just as essential to learn how generations differ from one another in the way that they use social media. Due to the rapid development of digital and technology, new millennials are quite dissimilar to older generations like generation X and baby boomers. According to Will Palley from JWT, “there is no longer a case of logging on or off.” (Stylus, 2013:online) He goes onto say that teens do not compartmentalise between on and offline.

Kate Tyler, founder of social media consultancy business, Shake Social, believes that new millennials are a lot more comfortable with sharing online and “the merger between public and private spheres.” (Tyler, 2013)As new millennials have grown up in an environment enveloped by digital and technology, their use of social media is rigidly integrated into their daily routine whereas older generations who have lived a life without digital enhancement go through a much more adaptive process. There is perhaps a wariness of social media from older generations, it does not necessarily come naturally to them in the way that it does to new millennials. A global social media survey showed that more than 70% of new millennials have created a profile on social networking sites, compared to 36% of baby boomers (Van den Bergh, 2011, p.8.) Although it is noteworthy that some people from older generations are not typical of this, to a more detailed extent, it does depend solely on the individual. For example, Neville Hobson is from the baby boomer generation and has created a living out of social media. From observation, it is apparent that his online presence is considerable and therefore integrated into his daily routine, much like new millennials.

In my interview with Hobson, he described his view of how different generations connect with brands via social media. He expressed that the baby boomers approach tends to be much more formal, and “there are still notions of traditional respect and authority” (Hobson, 2013), likening it to a relationship between himself as a boy and his teacher where there was more authority than there is today. We discussed that millennials would not accept such a rapport today and have expectations to be treated equally. This might be a result of the changes and developments in parenting techniques that author Joeri Van den Bergh describes in his book, How Cool Brands Stay Hot, illustrating how “Boomers included the view of their children in every discussion or decision… Their parents have served them hand and foot, and that is what they will expect in life, work and relationships, too.” (Van den Bergh, 2011, p.7.)

A big issue for all businesses to consider in the near future is how the next generation of consumers will differ from those of the past. (Jackson & Shaw, 2009, p.15)

Although older generations may consider socialising on Facebook to be a completely different – even inferior – form of interaction to socialising face to face, teens don’t compartmentalise these two realms. (Stylus, 2013:online)

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Van den Bergh (2013:online) also states that millennials are “the most marketing-savvy and advertising-critical generation ever.” In an earlier phase of social media, competitions were a popular way of enlarging brand awareness and attracting consumers to your social media profiles. From observation of the many brands I follow on Facebook and Twitter this is still apparent, especially from high street brands such as Soap & Glory and Benefit who regularly do ‘like and share to win’ competitions, but does this actually create sales? Are people drawn to the brand simply for the opportunity of winning a prize, or do they then go onto buy products from the brand? Stylus (2013:online) recently reported “flashy call-to-action type social media efforts are being replaced” The report continued by saying social media is now more about creating an authentic experience for the consumer.

When I interviewed avid social media user, Jordan Mann, a 20-year-old journalism student from Sunderland (see Fig 3.), he stated that he “follows brands on Twitter if they produce engaging content that he can relate to, if they have a sense of humour, that helps, too.” (Mann, 2013) Jordan’s reasons for connecting with brands via social media strengthen Stylus’ idea that brands need to offer a more human and authentic experience for their consumers. My ‘How Do You Interact With Brands Online?’ survey showed that almost 44% of participants followed brands on social media simply to enter their competitions and 31% of those people have not bought products from them since. A third of participants said they followed brands for information about products or engaging content whilst another third followed brands to find out about sales and offers.

In my interview with Jordan and in a similar interview with Emma Griffiths, an interior design graduate (see Fig 4.) who also uses social media avidly, I discovered that they are both likely to buy more from brands they follow because they have essentially gotten to know them, they have engaged and created a relationship with them. However, Emma said that she tends to be influenced more by bloggers rather than brands on social media as she felt that “they are more honest and not just for sales.” (Griffiths, 2013) This supports the idea that millennials search for genuineness when buying products or simply looking to engage with brands.

“Millennials are three times as likely to follow brands over a family member on social networks” (SAP, 2013:online) demonstrating the depth of opportunity that is available for brands to elevate through the use of social media. New millennials are a key cohort in the social media sphere but it does not mean that older generations are not present online at all, they are perhaps just in different areas of the landscape or their perception is not the same as younger consumers. New millennials are leading in the digital environment but it is an imperative platform for creating brand awareness for any generation.

When we talked about apps and social media years ago, it was all about engaging with fans through an action-reward system. Now it’s about extending the relationship and the conversation. (Stylus, 2013:online)

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3 brands i follow on twitter

3 brands i follow on facebook

least used

3 brands i follow on facebook

emma g

riffiths, 21

jordan

mann

, 20mo

st used

most used

least used

3 brands i follow on twitter

FIG. 3: consumer profile for jordan mann by chloe taylor, 2014

FIG. 4: consumer profile for emma griffiths by chloe taylor, 2014

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brands on social media

322

It is clear that today it is essential for brands to be in the social media realm, without it they would be clueless about their consumers’ needs and wants; “It is in our online conversations that we make it clear what we like, where we are and what we are looking for.” (Scoble & Israel, 2013, p.4) But it is also evident that brands still do not understand social media, “brands are still clueless about social” (Hobson, 2013) A lot of brands have misunderstood the modern enterprise as another traditional marketing tool, which it is not.

For example, many social media attempts fail when businesses rely on auto-posting websites such as Tweetdeck.com. For instance, in January 2013, Tesco posted a tweet that said “It’s sleepy time so we’re off to hit the hay, see you at 8am for more #TescoTweets” hours after the horse meat scandal came to light, causing an uproar for days after where thousands of Twitter users made jokes and complaints to the UK supermarket. (Burn-Calendar, 2013:online) Furthermore, Fashionista.com reported that in a study of 700 million online shopping sprees, “social shopping accounted for less than 1% of all online shopping sessions.” (Mau, 2013:online), further demonstrating the reality of how little brands seem to know about social media, thus misconstruing its real potential for businesses.

It seems to me that most brands haven’t elevated this possibility, this opportunity to genuinely connect with individuals, they’ve not done that, largely speaking, they have not, brands see social as simply a marketing method and that reflects how they behave with stunts. (Hobson, 2013)

Social networking sites are a means of communication, a place to connect with others and create or strengthen relationships. In a business context; it is about brand extension and brand awareness.

By using social media as a way of bonding with existing and potential customers, you are creating awareness and strengthening relationships, which may not create instant sales, but over time, will indirectly translate into sales; “Brands’ social media fans spend more annually on their products than non fans.” (Heggestuen, 2013:online)

Brands shouldn’t be spending a significant proportion of their resources on social media if they’re looking to directly increase sales. Of course, social media is still valuable in terms of increasing awareness and getting across a brand’s message. (Mau, 2013:online)

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But not all businesses are getting social media wrong. One brand that is regularly commended for its social media efforts is Burberry. (See Fig. 5) In November 2009, Burberry’s first big social campaign, Art Of The Trench, was born. Art of the Trench paid homage to the signature coat by allowing people to share photos of themselves wearing a Burberry trench and enabling others to admire their style on the campaign’s standalone website, artofthetrench.com. (Grieve, et al., 2013:online) Burberry saw an opportunity in the trend of street style bloggers and collaborated with renowned street style photographer, The Sartorialist, to create publicity around Art Of The Trench and drive traffic to the Burberry website.

The campaign engaged two consumer audiences, existing customers and aspiring customers. Existing customers could post images of themselves in their Burberry trench coats and both existing and aspirational customers could ‘like’, share and comment on the photos through Facebook, Twitter and email. Art of the Trench saw Burberry’s Facebook fan base grow to over one million, the largest number of fans in the luxury sector at the time. (Grieve, et al., 2013:online) The luxury brand’s e-commerce site also grew “by 50% year over year” (Mansfield, 2013:online) due to the Art of the Trench website and the Burberry Facebook page.

Following the success of Art of the Trench, Burberry celebrated the launch of a new flagship store in Beijing - the first of one hundred Chinese stores to be opened or refitted – with a holographic fashion show, using only six real models. (Digitalbuzz Blog, 2011:online) Greg Stogden, Burberry’s Senior Vice President of Creative Media stated that the event was the second largest ever, only to Russian Eurovision, to use projectors. (Stogden, 2013)

Striding even further ahead in the realm of social media, Burberry became the first to live stream a catwalk show through a phone in 2013. The brand partnered up with Apple, shooting the video through the iPhone 5S before its official launch. The show was streamed across eleven social networks, Burberry’s Regent Street flagship store and thirteen outdoor screens, including Times Square. The final fifteen-second Instagram video accrued 18,000 likes. (Strugatz, 2013:online)

Wanting to “repersonalise digital” (Stogden, 2013), Burberry Kisses was launched in 2013. Partnering with digital genius, Google, the campaign enabled people to “send kisses to their loved ones around the world” (Ibrahim, 2013:online) ‘Kiss Recognition Technology’ was used to create a Burberry Kiss where lip contact on a touch screen captured people’s lip imprint. Users could choose the colour of their Burberry Kiss, creating a buzz around Burberry’s beauty products and lipsticks. I sent out Burberry Kisses to friends and family to try out the campaign and the recipients seemed delighted and intrigued, showing the heartwarming and personal nature that Burberry intended, showing the success that comes from being genuine online.

Burberry’s social media strategies are so successful due to its genuine approach to connect with real people.

Stogden (2013) stated that they “don’t look at it as a strategy but an amazing experience” He went on to talk about how Burberry is a company built on protecting people, they have an openness and a realness that other businesses perhaps do not have. The creative team treats digital in the same way they do product and design, and that is the key to their social media success.

Burberry treated these things as connecting with individuals and they promoted individuals, not the brand name… They understand one thing, they know the places where the people they’re interested in hang out. (Hobson, 2013)

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fig 5. burberry Mood Board, by Chloe Taylor, 2014 25

4new technologies

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New technologies are integrating social media deeper into our daily routines.

With the launch of groundbreaking technologies like Google Glass and Xbox One, it is inevitable that soon enough, social media will not even be a question. In Age of Context, Scoble and Israel talk about cloud computing enabling billions of computers to interconnect, they make it clear that this is not just our mobile phones, but also “our watches, our cameras, our cars, our refrigerators, our toothbrushes.” (Scoble and Israel, p.XIV) This amalgamation of social media into technology is already taking place. Globally renowned car manufacturing company, Toyota, is already putting these digital advances into place. Its upcoming creation is a car with the ability to tweet you messages when necessary, for example when the car needs servicing, it will alert you via social media. “Cars now have the ability to tweet you status updates… Managing officer at Toyota calls it ‘a new kind of car, almost like an iphone on wheels” (Scoble and Israel, 2013, p. XV)

What’s more is the creation of the Samsung Galaxy Gear and the Sony Smartwatch 2, not forgetting the rumoured Apple iWatch. The Samsung Galaxy Gear claims to seamlessly link with your Samsung smartphone to make life and

staying connected easier. (Samsung, 2013:online) Sony matches this with the Smartwatch 2 by interacting with your Android smartphone via Bluetooth; “what’s happening in your life is mirrored in your watch” (Sony, 2013:online) The smartwatch acts as a remote for your smartphone, enabling you to answer calls, read text messages and update social media, merging two pieces of technology to make your life easier. This creation is a small insight into how embedded social media and the idea of being connected will be into everyday objects. Although it may seem like an unnecessary device when you can use your smartphone to tell the time, answer phone calls, text messages and keep up to date with everyday information. But this is an idea of where the future of technology is leading us and maybe one day, as technological advancements heighten even further, devices like the smartwatch might replace the smartphone.

Today, we are in the midst of a customer revolution where the world is being reshaped by the convergence of social and mobile cloud technologies. The combination of these technologies enables us to connect everything together in a new way and is dramatically transforming the way we live and work. (Scoble & Israel, 2013, p.XIV)

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fig 6.: xbox one Mood Board, by Chloe Taylor, 2014 28

Xbox OneLaunched in November 2013, Xbox One (see Fig. 6) is said to “take over your living room thanks to its ability to control satellite and cable TV set top boxes.” (Kelion, 2013:online) The next-generation console has created the possibility to watch television, play games, Skype and browse the Internet all through one machine. Xbox has even made it possible for you to do two things at once through

one screen, for instance, watching television and checking Twitter.

Like the smartwatch, Xbox One streamlines all of your technological needs into one place, making it easier for you whilst creating an even more seamless experience. 44% of new millennials use their smartphones as a second screen whilst watching television, in comparison to 22% of people aged 35+. (Van den Bergh, 2013:online) Xbox One has advanced this statistic by supplying the user with one screen for everything, interlinking experiences that once were less or completely disconnected,

and thus integrating social media further into our daily lives.

What’s more is that Xbox One responds to voice commands, portraying the console as more human and making interacting with the machine even more effortless. It could even be said that interacting

with Xbox One through voice command is closely likened to interacting with another human. It allows you to socialise, exercise, retain information, play games and even monitor your heart, all of which

were once implemented by human beings.

The worry is that inventions such as Xbox One are making interaction with the real world extinct, it is no longer necessary to leave your house to meet with friends or exercise, you can do it all from your living room. Comedian, David Mitchell (2013:online) expressed his concerns about how “this ingenious new machine is designed to render obsolete every human activity” in a recent article for

the Guardian.

But it is indisputable that these inventions are happening and if businesses are to continue to be successful in the years to come, it is important that the people running those businesses accept and

adapt to these inevitable changes, regardless of their reservations, before they are left behind.

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fig 7. Google Glass Mood Board, by Chloe Taylor, 2014 30

Google GlassAnother revolutionary creation to make headlines in 2013 was Google Glass. (See Fig. 7)

The above quote discusses a future development of Google Glass not yet available to the everyday consumer, but it provides context of where the future is headed. What Google Glass is said to offer right now is to “provide recordable, shareable experiences, enable discovery and enrich your life” (Meyer, 2013:online) It enables you to stay engaged in an experience whilst recording or taking photographs to share online, provides you with directions whilst you are driving without having to take your eyes off the road and offers you information about your surroundings at the time, i.e. reviews of the best places to eat nearby. What Google Glass has done is override the need for any handheld or portable device such as a laptop, smartphone or satellite navigation system; it has incorporated all of the needs for these devices into one piece of wearable technology. In the case of using a laptop, you have to be somewhere convenient, like sitting on a train or at a desk but wearing Google Glass means you can be walking to work whilst checking your emails or updating your Facebook status without stopping or staring down at a smartphone screen.

Similarly to Xbox One, Google Glass can be controlled through voice command or certain head movements or gestures, acting as an extension of your body that you can control like an extra limb. Although they enable almost all of the same activities, one key difference between Xbox One and Google Glass is that Xbox One is stationary and its possibilities are confined to a home whereas Google Glass is accessible anywhere and everywhere. Therefore it is arguable that Google Glass is a more positive invention than Xbox One as it encourages movement and real life interaction. Due to Google Glass’ mobile nature, it could be seen as life enhancing rather than life diminishing.

It is the first consumer electronics gadget that uses a new kind of infrared eye sensor that watches your pupil. Thus, it knows where you look… It will know whether you are walking, running, skiing, biking, shopping or driving, and tailor information to you accordingly. (Scoble & Israel, 2013, p.20)

Xbox One and Google Glass are two key examples of how technology is rapidly changing everyday life, and will almost certainly not be the last technological advances. These devices are only in their first stages and will develop even further over time. Innovations like Xbox One and Google Glass may seem like fads now but hindsight shows that they are likely to change our lives for good and one day, we will wonder how we ever coped without them, much like the smartphone and the Internet. In relation to social media, these inventions are enhancing the use of it, and enabling users of social media to assimilate it with their lives so flawlessly that it is becoming almost as natural as breathing. It is essential that businesses recognise that social media and technological advances like the examples I have mentioned work in tandem and are helping each other to grow and develop beyond the point of return.Social media is not a fad; it is a fundamental change that is going to transform life in general. Nothing that moves this fast is a fad and it’s doubling every year in speed. (Israel, 2013)

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5big data

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The first generation of the Internet, known at the time as the World Wide Web, was born in 1991. Invented by Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web acted as a body of documents that could be accessed by hyperlinks. (Bryant, 2013:online) The initial version of the Internet was very basic system that you could access to read documents; there was no interactive use until the rise of retrospectively named Web 2.0, coined by Dale Dougherty from O’Reilly Media in 2004. (O’reilly, 2005:online) Web 2.0 describes a change in the function of the Internet – it became a lot more interactive, users could create blogs, explore search engines and add their own content, it became about participation as apposed to basic publishing. (O’reilly, 2005:online)

Today, the Internet is at another tipping point that is often referred to as Big Data, a term coined in a paper by Francis X Diebold in 2000. (Lohr, 2013:online) Big Data describes the latest evolution of the Internet. The best way to describe what big data is, is that every page you visit on the Internet, every tweet or status update, every email you send, every blog post you write, contributes to a very complex and indescribably large database that grows at an exponential rate - “90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.” (IBM, 2013:online)

This database is not stored or managed in one place; it is essentially unmanageable because of its size. (Manyika, et al. 2011:online) But what is starting to happen is that organisations, businesses and individuals are beginning to take small chunks of this data to analyse, interpret and understand it, something that can be extremely beneficial to businesses.

Big Data can be accessed by anyone - anything you search for on the Internet accesses billions of data to produce the results you are looking for. It is key to understand that if you look at big data from a producing content point of view, anything you upload to the Internet is searchable; it will never be completely removed. The use of Big Data can be a greatly positive and useful tool for businesses. In the context of social media, businesses can use the data available on the Internet to find out information about their existing consumers and target audience in order to create greater appeal to them and also to provide an improved and more personalised service.

In another part of my interview with Neville Hobson, we discussed whether businesses are making themselves present enough through social media and on the Internet in general.

In 2005, Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Google, estimated the size of the Internet at roughly 5 million terabytes… Every day we expand the Internet by half the size it was in 2005. (Scoble & Israel, 2013, p.5)

When I ask people in businesses, do you know what people use Google search for who end up on your site, how they get there, what key word drove the search and 99.9 times out of 100, they don’t know, there is your problem, because you need to know what people are searching for… It isn’t brand names, it’s typically emotive sentences, how do I do X or what is Y… It’s not Coca-Cola. It might be raincoat as opposed to Burberry, so if someone types raincoat, you want to make sure you show up. (Hobson, 2013)

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Hobson believes that not enough businesses are making use of the data that is so readily available to them, “You need to know what are the things, the people that you’re interested in, what are they interested in online?” (Hobson, 2013) The answers to these questions are available in the realm of Big Data, it is about deciding what your end goal is, what key questions you need to answer to reach it and using smaller chunks of Big Data to achieve it. For example, US retail store, Target, knew a customer was pregnant before her father did, due to the fact that she had been searching for pregnancy related products online and Target used this data to tailor discount vouchers specifically to her. The story came to light when her father found coupons for baby clothes that Target had sent her in the post. (Datoo, 2013:online) You will also see similar activities on Amazon. When you browse an item on Amazon, the section, “customers who bought this item, also bought…” is displayed underneath, they then analyse your purchases, or data, to collect and record information in order to provide potential consumers with extra options. According to Guardian.co.uk, these product recommendations account for 35% of Amazon’s success (Datoo, 2013:online), demonstrating the potential of using Big Data.

Privacy is a taboo topic when it comes to discussing Big Data. Is it ethical that businesses can use data made from your own searches or purchases, etc., to their advantage? But on the other hand, are these businesses not using data you have produced to your advantage? It is undeniable that businesses like Target and

Amazon are using Big Data to increase their sales, but at the same time, they are creating a more relevant and personalised experience for you as the customer, so Big Data is essentially providing benefits for both parties. It only becomes a question of ethics when businesses overstep the mark, like the Target story I previously mentioned.

In the essence of a forward thinking approach to social media, I think it is important to see the beneficial sides of Big Data, and used morally, it can bring businesses and consumers closer. Stylus’ The Brand Of Me report (2013:online) states that “the consumer demands this richer level of engagement.” which Big Data can help businesses to achieve in order to strengthen consumer relationships and encourage repeat business.

There is a sliding scale between tangible benefits that consumers appreciate (e.g., loyalty programs, rewards cards) and feeling that a company has stepped beyond personal boundaries. (Daniels, 2013:online)

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conclusion

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I feel that the exploration of social media throughout this project has confirmed my initial feelings about the growing dependence that businesses have on the digital world. Through carrying out

research for this report, I found that all of the different aspects of social media and technology work in tandem to not only create the landscape that exists today but also where social media is heading

and how it is changing life in general. Without new technologies, certain social media platforms could not exist and vice versa. For

instance, Instagram would have never been created if it weren’t for the invention of smartphones. Furthering that, Snapchat may never have been invented if it wasn’t for the popularity of Instagram or the ever-rising trend of ‘selfies’ (taking a self portrait photograph). My

discussions with social media experts Neville Hobson and Kate Tyler were fundamental pieces of research in writing this report and their

extensive interest and knowledge of social media has concluded that social media is here to stay and will continue to integrate itself deeper

into everyday life.

It is inevitable that social media will not be forgotten and any business that wants to be successful now and in the future needs to embrace

this ever-developing way of communication in full.

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know this; just being there is not enough. You have to interact with and respond to your online community.

Acknowledge the compliments and respond immediately to the problems. (Garst, 2013)

recommendations

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Throughout this report, I have outlined some key factors that have enhanced

and encouraged the development and growth of social media, as well as explaining why it is beneficial to

businesses through key examples and case studies. To summarise, I have

written some general recommendations for businesses that are struggling with

or do not understand social media, as well as writing some more specific examples for Designer Forum (See Appendix 7), in order for you to be able to contextualise my general

recommendations.

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Identify who your online consumer isIn order to be able to appeal to your consumers, you need to find out what their habits are online. Which part of the social media landscape are they in and what time of day do they use social media? Neville Hobson believes there is a difference in the way brands should approach different generations, which I previously mentioned in Chapter 2 but he stressed that it is still vital to use social media to reach out to older generations

For example, Facebook still dominates the social media landscape across all generations but this is where older generations mostly are. According to entrepreneur.com, 72% of adults use social media, and 67% of that number use Facebook, while teens are more active on Twitter. (Davis, 2013:online) It is evident that different generations typically use different social media platforms; so defining your target audience in the context of social media is vital in order to see any ROI.

Create A Genuine ConnectionIt is essential that your interests match the interests of your target audience, so that you have something in common in order to position yourself as a brand they want to connect with and know more about, i.e. topics that you can engage them in and create conversation over. An extra advantage of matching interests is the fact that this will drive traffic to your website, and increase

You need to recognise which types and tools those generations will use… They won’t be all over Whatsapp so you’re more limited but you need to know where they are. (Hobson, 2013)

your search engine optimisation levels (SEO), furthering brand awareness and catching the attention of potential consumers. Kate Tyler (2013) believes “having a clear understanding of your target market and what appeals to them is key to being successful with social media.”

Taking the time to engage consumers and create a genuine connection with them is fundamental as new millennials are typically not brand loyal, they are seen as a “fickle group” (Stylus, 2013:online) because of the array of brands they are exposed to via social media, “they want to see the more human aspect of brands”. (Stylus, 2013:online) According to SAP (2013), 73% of people they surveyed said they “would not care if the brands they used disappeared from their life.” illustrating how important it is to encourage loyalty through a more engaging, human approach to social media.

The main function of social media is to communicate, so brands should take the time to do that. Neville Hobson (2013) indicates that brands “seem more comfortable relying on the old marketing methods” and he feels there is a key opportunity to “genuinely engage human being to human being” that is being missed.

The success of Burberry’s social media campaigns prove just how important it is to connect authentically with your consumers and that is why the brand has set itself apart from other brands that do not do this so well.

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Use Big Data to Your AdvantageUsing Big Data morally means you can gain closer insights into the lifestyles, wants and needs of your target consumers as well as heightening their experience with your business, encouraging repeat business and brand loyalty. What’s more is that you can use Big Data to drive traffic to your website and create a larger online presence, in order to reach out to potential customers as well as existing ones.

- Observe the social media platforms in which your target audience reside and make note of what they enjoy and talk about that is relevant to your business.

- Put yourself into the mind of your target consumer and try to understand what they search for online, is your website coming up in search results when they are looking for information? To ensure this, create a list of key words and check that they are present on your website and social media profiles so that you are findable within the realm of the Internet.

- Look at how consumers are already interacting with your website and social media profiles, use their activity and provided details to enhance their experiences with your business and make them more memorable. I.e. I have purchased products from beauty brand, Illamasqua, through its website. Through creating an account, they now know that my next purchase will be my third transaction and have provided me with a 10% off code. Further to this, my account details include my date of birth, to which they sent me another 15% discount code in a ‘Happy Birthday’ email. This is making good (and moral) use of Big Data.

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Incorporate Social Media & Digital Marketing Into Your Marketing Strategy

It is evident that “social media is clearly here to stay.” (Tyler, 2013) so it is vital that if you are going to create an online presence through social media, you are fully committed. In a workshop I attended in the summer (Seven Steps To Social Media Success) Kate Tyler urged how important it is to be consistent on social media, “Don’t buy into something you cannot commit to” (Tyler, 2013) She went on to say how consumers will not give your business their time if it is not consistent, as irregular posts and scarce updates imply laziness and inattentiveness. Therefore, incorporating social media into your existing business strategy demonstrates dedication to the cause. Creating a plan with targets and schedules will certify consistency and return on investment.

Keep Up To Date With Social Media Trends & New TechnologiesStaying on top of new launches, technologies and inventions means you will be at the forefront of the social media world. If you are in the know, you can find new tools and channels that may be relevant and timely for your business as well as opening up opportunities to connect with a wider audience and strengthen existing relationships. According to IBM’s Ecosystems General Manager, Sandy Carter “Social media strategies are moving beyond Twitter and Facebook” (Mashable, 2013:online) For example clothing brand, J. Crew, launched their AW14 lookbook on Pinterest, creating a lot of media attention. (Wang, 2013:online) Pinterest is experiencing rapid growth as a social media channel and is now worth $3.8bn (£2.3bn) (Kantrowitz, 2013:online) According to Forbes (Hof, 2013:online), it is gaining on Facebook and Twitter in content sharing. By launching their lookbook on Pinterest, J. Crew caught the attention of social media savvy consumers and made the availability of their collection more instant to them, creating excitement around their clothing and driving traffic to their website where people could shop the products online. By using a contemporary digital platform, J. Crew created a lot of positive media press and hype around their new collection, generating more brand awareness and potential online sales – this is a real example of the success that using social media and keeping up to date with new technologies can bring.

In ten years, social won’t even be a question. In the same way we don’t question using the Internet to conduct business now, we won’t be questioning the use of social tools. It will also be so ingrained that we’ll have a hard time imagining how we ever did anything without it. (Douthwaite, 2013:online)

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Connect Your Business’ Online and Offline PresenceInterlinking your online presence with your traditional marketing tools and offline business will project a united brand image, connecting your online and offline audiences with one voice - “Consumers are becoming omni-channel customers (buying online and in bricks-and-mortar stores) and are becoming most valuable.” (Stylus, 2013:online) By integrating your social media strategy with your offline strategy, you are constructing a seamless experience across all channels to enhance the ethos of your business and creating one strong image. A great example of this is Burberry’s flagship store on Regent Street, London, “a space where the digital meets the physical” (Regent Street Online, 2013:online) Within the store you can try on products in front of a mirror that transforms into a screen, telling you how the piece was made, staff are equipped with iPads to find anything you are looking for and there is a stage, complete with a huge screen and speakers. Burberry often uses the screen and stage for events, sometimes musicians play there and the brand also recently invited people to attend a streamed version of their catwalk show. Creative Director, Christopher Bailey has revolutionised Burberry and reinvented its image through the merging of digital and real world experiences. From my visit to Burberry on Regent Street, it is clear that the in-store experience successfully mirrors the brand’s online experience, providing all consumers with the same encounters, whether it is online or in-store. My research of Burberry illustrates that fusing online and offline presence proves to be wildly successful, which is why Hobson believes the brand to be far ahead of other brands on social media.

Uniting your online and offline strategies will allow each platform to help each other move forward, social media is becoming integrated in the lives of individuals and doing so in your business will put you on the same page as your consumer.

recommendations for designer forum

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After observing and analyzing Designer Forum’s online presence, it is clear that the business does not pay a lot of attention to its social media channels. Designer Forum has attempted to develop a presence via social media by creating profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Vimeo as well as a Wordpress blog and a Linkedin profile. However, the profiles have been left very much stagnant and the channels

are seldom used, for example, the Designer Forum blog has not been updated since 1st November 2013.

By creating profiles on social media and not making use of them creates the idea that your are not bothered and have forgotten all about them, portraying a sense of laziness and lack of concern for their following. Therefore it is important to really commit to a social media channel once you have signed up to it – Kate Tyler (2013) recommended in her social media workshop to only take on what you can fully

commit to and keep up to date with, she also urged that there has to be a sense of consistency and routine, which is not apparent with Designer Forum.

From my observations and analysis of Designer Forum’s online presence, I have constructed some key recommendations that it could implement into its strategy to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to its social media channels, and thus moving it from the ‘laggard’ circle to the ‘dominator’ circle. (See

Fig. 8)

laggard

dominator

innovator

Fig. 8: infographic showing the level of innovation of brands on social media, by Chloe Taylor, 2014

burberry

toyota

illamasqua

j. crew

target

amazon

designer forum

tesco

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Become The Go-To Business For Trend InformationDesigner Forum is a trend-forecasting organisation, which is the reason interested parties will follow the business’ social media profiles. However, looking at Designer Forum’s blog, Twitter and Facebook profiles, there is no sign of any posts sharing knowledge of trends. Trend-forecasting is a key topic of interest in relation to Designer Forum’s service and thus, it should use this as a means of connection and communication with existing and potential members in order to create a strong online rapport which could lead to new and repeat business. In order to achieve this, Designer Forum should generate regular, knowledgeable posts on future trends in an array of industries, i.e. fashion or interiors, in order to create a hook for its target consumer. Although it is important to note that, as Designer Forum is a membership organization, the posts should be a taster of what is on offer and not the full content of resources so as not to deter people from joining if they have access to a substantial amount of information for free.

Keeping in mind that it is vital to differentiate posts on different social media platforms, here are some examples of the types of posts Designer Forum could generate for each of its channels.

Twitter: Short bursts of relevant information or straightforward statistics, i.e. ‘Pantone’s colour of the year is Radiant Orchid’

Pinterest: A board dedicated to Pantone’s colour of the year with an array of innovative and inspirational imagery to show followers how they can put the key colour to use in their own work or designs.

Facebook: Sharing stimulating articles or interviews with key people in relevant industries, i.e. fashion designers or creative directors.

Linkedin: Statistics and information on consumer behaviour or trends in certain industries – Linkedin is much more business focused and less informal than other channels so it is important to focus on facts.

Blog: More in depth posts about relevant current affairs and happenings that are affecting the industries that Designer Forum caters to as well as posts about happenings within the business that members can keep up to date with - Successful blogs have variety so this is where Designer Forum can take advantage of being diverse and appealing to a wide audience.

Trend-forecasting businesses are seen as innovative and forward-thinking because they are predicting the future, so it is vital that Designer Forum demonstrates these qualities so people will see it as a market leader, a business to believe in and respect.

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Use Social Media as a Two-Way Communication ToolAs social media users seek a more human experience and a genuine connection with brands, Designer Forum should treat its following as equal. The majority of Designer Forum’s posts talk about the business and it is evident that it has taken the traditional approach to marketing; there is no apparent genuine interest in its followers or fans. By allowing a ‘two-way street’ if you like, Designer Forum can extend its communication with existing and potential members and strengthen relationships, i.e. looking at what its following is interested in, what popular topics of common interest are and joining in the conversation that its followers and fans are already having. Designer Forum need to show it is a friend to its followers and a business they can rely on, not that it is trying to look at them solely as a potential sale.

Make Better Use of Vimeo AccountAs I stated earlier in this report, by 2017, 90% of Internet traffic will be made up of video (SAP, 2013) therefore Designer Forum should begin to take advantage of this opportunity. Video is a motivating form of communication that is engaging to users. While Designer Forum has created a Vimeo account, there is only one video upload on its profile. By generating more content for its Vimeo account, Designer Forum can provide another level of communication and engagement for its audience as well as staying at the forefront of the social media industry regarding the statistic at the beginning of this section.

From my experience of working at Designer Forum, I found that many people who were interested in joining the organisation did not realize it was based in Nottingham and found it was too far to travel. By developing its Vimeo channel into a platform that users go to for information and entertainment, Designer Forum can connect with people too far away to visit the headquarters and provide them with a platform similar to what members enjoy in the library. For example, video content could include interviews with members and industry experts and trend summaries of key events such as London Fashion Week.Perhaps in the long run, Designer Forum could develop a login only platform where members can access information that they would usually have to visit the headquarters to acquire.

Stay Forward Thinking & Ahead of the GameTrend-forecasting is a dynamic and forward thinking industry so it is vital that Designer Forum creates a similar ethos and brand message in order to keep connections with its members strong as well as reaching out to potential members. I discussed new technologies earlier in this report and while inventions like Google Glass and Xbox One may not be relevant to Designer Forum, it is still important that it is aware of them so that it knows where the future is headed and how similar technologies may affect business in general. New technologies also include things like Google Plus, something that has not taken off in the same way as Facebook but it is up and coming, Google Plus is said to start gaining momentum in 2014 (Burnham, 2013) so Designer Forum should also be creating a presence there so that it can keep up with trends that are soon to take off, positioning themselves at the forefront of the social media landscape.

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“You should have a Facebook Fan Page and be on Twitter. Write a blog and form a Google+

Community. Make your website value-based and not just a digital billboard. In other words, build a true digital strategy and make sure it includes

an extra helping of social media.”Garst, 2013

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list of illustrationsFigure 1: The Social Media Landscape 2013, By Fred Cavazza, 2013. Available at: http://www.fredcavazza.net/2013/04/17/social-media-landscape-2013/

Figure 2: Social Media Infographic, By Chloe Taylor, 2014. (own image)

Figure 3: Consumer Profile for Jordan Mann, By Chloe Taylor, 2014. (own image)

Figure 4: Consumer Profile for Emma Griffiths, By Chloe Taylor, 2014. (own image)

Figure 5: Burberry Mood Board, By Chloe Taylor, 2014. (own image)

Figure 6: Xbox One Mood Board, By Chloe Taylor, 2014. (own image)

Figure 7: Google Glass Mood Board, By Chloe Taylor, 2014. (own image)

Figure 8: Infographic Showing the Level of Innovation of Brands on Social Media, By Chloe Taylor, 2014. (own image)

Cover Image: Digital Blur, by Pattern Bank, 2014. Available at: http://www.pinterest.com/patternbank/digital-blur/

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appendices

56

57

57

appendix 1 - online survey

want to spend more on more clothing, makeup, accessories?

58

pilot versiionSocial Media Survey (tick where appropriate)

1. Are you male or female? - Male - Female

2. How old are you? - 16 - 25 - 26 - 35 - 36 - 45 - 46 - 55 - 55+

3. Do you post things on social media to grab the attention of somebody else? - Yes - No

4. Do you post things on social media to make yourself sound more interesting? - Yes - No

5. Do you post things on social media that you wouldn’t say in real life? - Yes - No

6. How often do you take selfies? - Never, I don’t take selfies - Once in a blue moon - Now and then - Weekly - Multiple times in a week

7. Do you think social media has made you more self-concious? - Yes - No

8. Do you think social media has made you more attention-seeking or vain? - Vain - Attention-seeking - Both - Neither

9. Has using social media made you more materialistic? - Yes - No

10. Does using social media and following brands/magazines on social media make you want to buy more clothing, makeup, accessories, etc? - Yes - No

59

survey results

16 - 25 26 - 35

36 - 45 46 - 55 56+

yes

no

yes

noyes

never, i don’t take selfies

now and then

once in a blue moon

weekly

multiple times in a week

no

1. what is your gender?

2. how old are you?

3. Do you/Have you ever post(ed) things on social media to grab the attention

of someone else?

4. Do you post things on social media to make yourself sound more

interesting?

5. Do you post things on social media that you wouldn’t say in real life?

6. How often do you take ‘selfies’ (self portrait photographs)?

yes no7. Do you think social media has made you more self-concious?

neither

vain

both

attentionseeking

8. Do you think social media has made you more attention-seeking

or vain?

9. Has using social media made you more materialistic?

10. Does using social media and following magazines/brands on social media make you want to buy more clothing, makeup,

accessories, etc?

61

appendix 2 - online survey

62

pilot versionBrands On Social Media (tick where appropriate)

1. How old are you? - 16 - 24 - 25 - 35 - 36 - 45 - 46 - 55 - 56 - 65 - 65+

2. Do you ever follow or like brands on social media just so that you can enter their competitions to win a prize, i.e. ‘like and share this photo to win...’ - Yes - No

3. Have you ever bought any products from them at any point after entering the competition? - Yes - No

4. What makes you follow a brand on social media? - Competitions - Information about products - Relatable content - Sales and offers - I don’t follow brands on social media

5. Who is your favourite brand to follow on social media? (If you ticked “I don’t follow brands on social media” for the last question, please put ‘N/A’)

63

survey results

1. how old are you?

under 16 16 - 24 25 - 35

36 - 45 46 - 55 56 - 65 65+

yes no

2. Do you ever follow or like brands on social media just so that you can enter their competitions to win a prize, i.e. ‘like and share this photo to win...’

3. If you answered yes to the above question, have you ever bought any products from them at any point after entering

the competition?

yes

no i answered no to the previous question

64

4. What makes you follow a brand on social media? sales and offers

I don’t follow brands on social

media

relatable content (i.e, stories you can engage with)

info about products

competitions

other

5. Who is your favourite brand to follow on social media? Please state WHY. (If you ticked “I don’t follow brands on social media” for the last question, please put ‘N/A’)

Innocent Smoothies create content that makes me

smile.

Sky as they have really good offers on. I am an existing Sky customer and got Sky movies half price for 6 months as a

result of liking them on facebook.

Tesco mobile for their hilarious tweets. And ASOS because they post interesting tweets and good offers

etc.

Live Breathe Futbol because it relates to me and i love the work

they do

asos, quick to reply and hilarious

Soap and Glory - the copy on

their products is brilliantly written and they are a very interactive brand on

social media.

not all responses shown

65

appendix 3 - kate tyler email interview

66

responses from kate tyler (sent in a word document)1. Do you think smaller businesses that have been around since before social media or that are ran by people who perhaps don’t understand it struggle to connect with their consumers online?

That is true for some smaller companies, but there are also a number of small businesses that have really embraced social media and made it work for them. Often the human, personal angle helps customers relate to those businesses more.

2. Do you think there is a vast difference in how younger generations (i.e. new millenials) present themselves on social media compared to how an older generation (i.e. generation Y or baby boomers) presents themselves?

I think younger generations are more comfortable with the idea of sharing, and of the merger between public and private spheres. That can sometimes translate as a pressure on younger social media users however which isn’t always healthy – younger users are often more concerned with image. Personality also plays a large factor regardless of age – those individuals who are more reserved in typical social situations are more likely to be so online as well. Older generations often indicate an appreciation of social media as a communication tool and a means of connecting with other family members etc, so it is often less about how they ‘present themselves’ and more about how they communicate.

3. If so, do you think businesses struggle to understand this?

In reality, it depends on the business. But I do often see small businesses struggling with their own distinctions between themselves personally and their businesses. Often lines overlap and can be inappropriate. Humour can be a difficult sea to navigate, with age – but also other cultural factors – meaning that something that is intended to be funny isn’t received as such. For any business, having a clear understanding of your target market, and what appeals to them, is key to being successful with social media.

4. In this day in age, do you think it is important for businesses to embrace social media in order to sustain brand awareness and relationships with consumer as well as to stay ahead of the competition?

Social media is clearly here to stay. The platforms may evolve, but the concept of digital social networking cannot be reversed. It’s important for businesses to be aware of this and to stay abreast of developments that affect their target market. This will be different for different businesses. A teen clothing line can’t afford not to be using social media. A senior care home may feel other marketing tools give a better ROI. Social media enables marketing, communication, customer service, SEO and networking. There are other options available that also cover these concepts – although none that really cover all of them in the way social media does - so a business needs to ascertain which approach makes the most sense for them.

5. Who do you think has more power on social media, consumers or businesses?

I think it’s a cyclical relationship. Consumers influence brands and brands influence consumers. Social media is a two-way street.

6. There have been many studies on how the digital generation are much more confident, demanding and narcissistic on social media, should businesses have to tap into this in order to create successful relationships with their consumers?

A confident brand can create a voice and a profile that works for them, without needing to bow to trends. It’s interesting to note, for example, that Apple have no presence on any of the social networks – a deliberate choice. A business is more likely to create successful relationships with their customers by being authentic, honest, approachable and personable – via social networks and beyond.

67

appendix 4 - neville hobson skype interview (transcription)Interview with Neville Hobson – 15th November 2013

Start of File 1

CT: I just wanted to ask you a few questions, my project is based around Generation Y on social media and how they’re transforming the way brands do business these days, as it’s very different to how social media started out and it’s obviously ever evolving, I’ve written down a few questions, I’ve got about ten if that’s alright… So we might as well just start with the first one… How do you think social media has affected Generation Y on a whole?

NH: We need to define what we mean by social media, I think, which is, you know, the all-embracing landscape which ranges from social networking sites like Facebook through to image sharing like Snapchat or Instagram through to blogs, the whole spectrum, so that is the social media landscape. What Gen Y is focused on from what I have read and partly from what I observe is some of the newer tools and channels, starting with Facebook but latterly tools, like Snapchat but also Whatsapp… I mean I’m talking tools and channels here but these are the sorts of places that typically this generation hangs out, they’re not bloggers, they’re not on Twitter necessarily, depending on what you read they’re either well embedded in Facebook or they’re all disserting Facebook, depending on which report you read but there’s no single place where they are and that’s relatively new, but it coincides with the fact that there are many new places that didn’t exist when Gen X was the predominant generation in this context, so a decade ago, the term social media didn’t even exist, it was blogging and podcasting, that was about it, Facebook wasn’t around, Friendster was still around and those early days have laid the landscape for what we say now so it’s a very big question, and I suppose what it has done, to get to the specific thing you asked having said all of that, you could say that it has liberated this generation, but not just the social tools, there’s also behavioural shifts, there’s mindset changes, there are lots more of us on the planet than there were 10 years ago… Network meaning connectivity, Internet, etc is almost ubiquitous, everywhere you go there’s a network connection so people can get online that they couldn’t do 5 to 10 years ago and so if they’ve got something to say they just say it so that feeds on your expectations, that you expect to be able to do these things now so you combine all of those things, and I would argue that it’s not so much social media has affected generation Y on the whole, although certainly you could say that is true, it’s more as well, or equally, the fact that this generation has embraced these new means of connecting with other generations with alacrity more than previous generations have but partly that’s because there are more tools and channels, it’s not like it’s a passive thing where all the stuff there affects behaviour change, they all work in tandem, so I would say, partly an extension to that question, is this generation is aware more of what they can do more than the previous generation but that’s not a new thing, that happens with every single generation, my generation which is the boomers generation emerged in the 1960s when I was a young teenager and that was radical change at that time, could we argue that now is not the same? But it is having the same effect, it disrupts the comfort zones of the previous generations, particularly from Gen Y to the parental generation, so that was the same when I was a kid, nothing changes in that regard, only really mindset, behaviours and the tools available to you.

CT: So would you say consumers, my generation, Gen Y, because of social media, you said it’s liberated our generation, do you think that means they have a lot more power, obviously because what they write on there is around for a longer time now, do you think it gives them a lot more power in their relationship with brands?

NH: No, I don’t, I think it’s too random, there’s a lot of noise out there, there’s increasing, now in fact, there’s so much information out there that unless you’ve got a point of view or an ability to say something or connect with something in a way that stands you out from the crowd, you’re just part of the noise… The larger difficulty for this generation is, precisely from a business point of view, genuinely having influence, what you see happening is what I see as the kind of herd activity, where you’ve got brands doing stunts on Facebook which is how I tend to see all of their activity with likes and all this kind of rubbish, the crowd goes with it because it’s a cool thing, click or tap or whatever, that’s not influence, it’s hard to pick out influencers, individuals in that crowd so it’s harder, I don’t think it’s easier at all.

CT: Do you think brands are a bit more wary about their reputation and things like that because of some of the… I mean, you can see that there’s mass… people have kicked off about what brands have done

in the past and they’ve had to react to that very quickly, do you think that even though they still have more power, they have to be a lot more careful these days?

NH: They do, without a doubt, brands definitely do, you don’t see a lot of it happening though, it seems to me that most brands haven’t elevated this possibility, this opportunity to genuinely connect with individuals, they’ve not done that, largely speaking, they have not, brands see social as simply a marketing method and that reflects how they behave with stunts, you know, like this and you get a prize or asking silly questions and all the clicks and the likes, these are mass numbers, a bit like the old days where you did advertising using the mass media, this isn’t that much different but this is just my opinion by the way…

CT: After listening to the podcast on the Age of Context and things like that, it’s really interesting to get your opinion, I’ve read your blog a little bit…

NH: Frankly, Chloe, I think most brands are clueless about social

CT: That’s what my project is basically about, because even though social media has been around for a while and brands like ASOS on Twitter for example, seem to be, to know what they’re doing, they’re still not understanding their consumer the way that they could so even though they think they’re using it positively, they’re still not understanding the different generations that use social media, how to actually connect with them and create authenticity, that’s what consumers mainly look for, because I think on a whole social media allows consumers to connect more with brands but it also creates a bit of doubt, a bit of worry about authenticity, about realness and being genuine.

NH: It’s not all bad like that, some, let’s say what we mean when we say brands, brands are an impersonal abstract thing, you can’t relate to a brand, you can relate to the brand manager or the person who is responsible for the brand and yet the behaviour you tend to see a lot of with big brands is you know, like or be a friend of the brand and talk to the brand, it doesn’t work like that, human beings don’t behave that way and the opportunity that’s being missed is to really engage, genuinely engage human being to human being but that requires a lot of work and most brands don’t seem to want to do that, they seem comfortable relying on the old marketing methods but there are a handful that really do get it and in your area of interest, in fashion, think of Burberry, now there’s a brand who really knows social, I know some of the people there at Burberry and indeed thinking about their CEO who was pinched recently to go and work for Apple to run their retail operation, that tells you a lot about where Apple’s going, it’s a fashion brand basically, I mean iPhone, iPad, the emerging tech developing with watches and things like that but Burberry have done some cool things that work, that others have tried doing and it didn’t work for them, why? Because Burberry treated these things as connecting with individuals and they promoted individuals, not the brand name so for instance something that springs to mind is what they did recently at London Fashion Week where they did a collection of videos with vine and Instagram of the catwalk, that was very imaginative and when you saw it, 6 seconds, it obviously took a lot of work to do that and that is obvious from what they did and that enhances your respect for the people at the brand and that’s totally different to Coca-Cola or Oreos or someone like that, that ends up with a stunt with you clicking a like button on Facebook, it’s totally different, so you could argue that the connections you make or rather the connections that Burberry is making with individuals that way are likely to be far more valuable, there in the kind of 10,000 or 15,000, then there are the 50 million likes that Coca-Cola has on Facebook for instance, so these connections that Burberry has made, they know a lot more about the individuals making up the numbers than Coke does about 50 million… Now it’s not like for like, it’s not the same objectives that they’re executing so I’m not criticising Coke, I’m looking more at praising Burberry because they demonstrate that they understand the landscape and their market isn’t exclusively Gen Y, it’s Gen X as well, mostly X I would expect, so they do very well and they are present in the major networks, Facebook, Google Plus, they’re on Twitter, they have blogs, they do all sorts of stuff, they’re all over the imaging area too, they understand one thing which it seems to me, they know the places where the people they’re interested in hang out so they know that the folks that are interested in their brand and they’re clothing ranges and all the stuff that you know, they promote, use Instagram, they’re on Flickr perhaps, but they’re on the photosharing places, that’s where Burberry is.

CT: So do you think that transfers more into sales, and they can get more from that than what someone like Coke can with what you’re saying about the likes, etc, obviously Coke are much different product

wise…

NH: Yeah, Coke don’t need to do it for sales, their brand recognition worldwide, global, is mega, it’s massive and in fact Coca-Cola regularly shows up in all these brand rankings, in the top 3 brands worldwide in every market they’re in so they don’t have the need so much, so what they’re doing isn’t for sales per say, Burberry might be different, I don’t know Burberry’s strategy but I would imagine everything they’re doing on social is directly related to supporting their sales, I’m sure they can tell you here are the measurable objectives that we can actually trace and track and measure whether our activity with Vine or Facebook or whatever had the result we set out in the strategy and that’s key to it, you got a strategy with a goal you can measure, you can see if it worked or not and I would imagine they have that in place

CT: Do you think that, I mean, in my mind I’m thinking more… Because I do a social media internship at a company, it’s a small business in Nottingham called Designer Forum which is a membership organisation for designers and creatives to do trend forecasting and they can come and use the resources that we have, we have Stylus and WGSN for a much cheaper price and what I’ve observed from Designer Forum, it’s really, really hard to get a strategy that is successful and a lot of our members still don’t understand social media but what I wanted to ask was do you think it is vital that brands or businesses are on social media and using it in a similar way to what Burberry are to connect with their consumers and more so generation Y and X?

NH: In a word, yes I do, I think that there’s plenty of evidence to show what you can get from social, the more difficult thing to do is connect sales to it, so that is not why you would be in Twitter for instance so if someone said to you we’ve been on Twitter for 6 months, what’s the result in increased sales, that’s the wrong question…

CT: Brand extension, brand awareness, that sort of thing…

NH: Right, right, word of mouth, showing how the things you’re interested in from key words show up in searches more linking to you because people are talking about it and that affects how Google works, other than the sheer human element of it which is people talking to each other, therefore you’re in the conversation but if you’re part of the conversation you know what you’re doing and that is definitely connected to sales without any doubt, so you’re engaging with people, you’re influencing a potential customer or an existing one even, and that person, from the feeling he or she has from talking to you may go and buy some of your stuff and will talk about the experience and if that conversation hadn’t happened in the first place, that probably wouldn’t have happened so that’s where you can make the connection like that, not for every company or industry, and it does really depend how you go about this and what objective you’re trying to achieve but the sales connection is very tricky, but to get back to your question, definitely, it’s essential to do this, I mean there are some terrific surveys around with all sorts of lovely metrics that you could throw around in this, I mean one I recall from this report I was reading the other day which said something like, Millennials is the word they use, it is believed that consumers care more about their shopping experience than the brands do, that’s why they share their opinions online, that is a primary reason why they talk about their experiences when they go to a shop, and another thing I read in the same report is you know, gen Y people who check-in on Foursquare or some other location site in a shop is the primary driver of their friends to go to that shop as well, based on word of mouth and what they’re experiencing, so based on all the advertising, all the promotion and all the marketing from that particular shop misses these people because they’re not paying attention to that particular kind of messaging or what their friends are saying… So that’s the landscape and many of marketing folks in brands don’t get that, don’t understand it, it’s a tricky one.

CT: My boss at my internship, always says, I know I’m supposed to have social media, I just don’t understand why I’m supposed to have it and I always try to explain to her but I guess, because my generation have grown up with social media, it’s a lot easier to be integrated into it but there are people like yourself, from an older generation who are still really interested in social media and use it…

NH: Well I must admit, I am not typical of my generation at all, most people I know my age really are quite clueless about most of this stuff and so I’m unusual and I know a lot of people like me, who behave like me on social, I mean I’m everywhere on the social landscape, I’ve forgotten how many places I am

but I’m active and I use these tools and channels to liaise with people that the last thing that we talk about or even are aware of is our generational differences, it doesn’t figure into any of the conversations, nor does gender for that matter, it’s common interest and exchanging opinions and thoughts, that’s what matters and all these other things don’t, so I think about what I typically do on Twitter or Google Plus, I’m not really on Facebook that much, I don’t really like Facebook that much but I’m there because people I’m interested in are as well but Twitter definitely there, I chat a lot on Twitter and there seem to be bursts of chat but thinking about the people I connect with most, they range in age, I would say, not knowing most of their ages, probably late fifties, through to early twenties, that whole age spectrum and everyone in that dynamic, we all have something that we have a common interest about, at least one thing or typically half a dozen of topics or brands of common interest, so that to me is interesting thing but from a marketing and a business part of view, I think any business who doesn’t or doesn’t want to understand social needs to, and they may not think they do, they definitely need to understand it because what we’re seeing is simply the first stage in what is happening and that book, Age of Context, is the best book yet that joins up the dots, it isn’t going to tell you what’s happening but it will help you understand the things that you have already seen and have heard about but haven’t really thought about the connections between them and what that means for not just business but our daily lives. So wearable technology, it’s a gimmick, it’s in America, it’s not outside of America yet, that’s purely one thing. So I was reading in the Financial Times yesterday about 3D printing in the healthcare industry, and something I didn’t know, they were talking about the experimentation going on in this country in NHS Trusts about 3D organs and replacement body parts and stuff like that…

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NH: The interesting thing would be what’s coming, so what we have now, let’s call it phase 2, phase 1 was blogging and the early days ten years ago, now we’ve got networking everywhere, connectivity everywhere, we’ve got nearly 7 billion people on the planet and we’ve got more mobile phones than people, and we look at the way mobile is driving hugely some of the changes that are happening, particularly in some of the so-called developing countries or the emerging markets or whatever you want to call them where people have got mobile devices, they’ve bypassed all the old tech that we’ve got, landlines and infrastructure like that, it’s all mobile and digital, they’ve jumped, so you’re seeing that and you see lots of projections from people like Accenture and people like McKinsey talking about South-East Asia, that big area which includes China, Japan down to Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, even with all the disasters that are going on there and the mobile take-up and usage of social is massive, it’s much more than here but they use social entirely differently to how we do in Western Europe and in the United States, it’s a totally different method, their mobile devices are totally different to ours, we have smartphones typically, that do cool stuff, by comparison, they have basic phones yet it does everything they need in terms of networking and text messaging and Twitter-like activity, so social network, sort of Facebook-like, not Facebook itself, they have alternatives in languages that we don’t speak, we don’t have those here but that’s coming… There’s a cool photo app I downloaded yesterday, I’ve forgotten what it’s called but they’ve made an English version, this thing is all over China in Chinese, they launched an English version and what it does is you take selfies of yourself and it creates comics of them and if ever there was a photo app that’s going to go viral in every country, this is it, I played around with it for half an hour yesterday and created 3 really silly cartoons of me, one of which I posted up on Twitter, it got a load of tweets and all that kind of stuff, so your age isn’t going to stop you, they’re silly things but they connect you with other people and that’s what makes the world go round.

CT: Do you think, in relation to businesses and brands, there’s a vast difference between the way generation Y connect with them and the way generation X or baby boomers connect with them, do you think there’s a difference or is it still quite similar, it just depends on the attitude?

NH: No, there is a vast difference, the old ways of… I guess the best way to differentiate it perhaps is the baby boomer typically, compared to gen Y, in terms of how they or a member of those generational groups engage or connect with a company who owns a brand and how that company would do it are totally different, so the baby boomer approach tends to be much more formal, tends to be based on, still, notions of traditional respect and authority, so you know, the old days, as a kid I remember, you respect

your teacher and call him sir, because he’s the teacher, that’s the only reason, but now those notions are gone, gen Y wouldn’t have that for a second, look what’s happened with politics right now and so, I saw a survey yesterday about gen Y, they’re not going to vote in the next election so we have a total generation who is not interested in politics because of the people and the idiocy that they see, they listen to Russell Brand for instance, so you’ve got that kind of difference in generations and marketers who don’t recognise that will fail and many of them don’t seem to because their behaviours aren’t that different, that’s not to say that everyone’s like that, I can think of a number of examples where they do, their approach is recognised and I suspect one reason for that is the people who are working for the brands and doing the activity are from the same generation, so there is hope, let’s put it that way.

CT: So do you think even though there’s a vast difference between businesses market to people of different generations, do you think social media is still important to target older generations?

NH: Yes it is, you need to do that though by recognising which types and tools that those generations will use, the typical boomer in business, may be on Facebook, more in America, not as much over here but may be on Linkedin probably, they won’t be on Twitter necessarily, but if they are it’ll be a business thing that they switch off at 5 o’clock and certainly not on the weekends, they won’t be all over Whatsapp and stuff so you’re more limited but you need to know where they are, the same with gen Y who are in all those other places… The landscape of places and tools and channels that people use grows every single day almost, niche networks all over the place, so you need to recognise that but I guess, more significantly, or if not, equally significantly, once you do that, how you engage with them is entirely different from a generational approach so for instance, the boomer type, with your behaviour as a brand, would almost be like the old forums in the old days, it’s hierarchical, it’s got someone in charge of it, there’s approvals and tut tut, you’re not allowed to say that, kind of thing, that’s not necessarily like it is now with gen Y, it’s by invitation and it’s by respect and so you as a brand owner, need to be part of their group and so you, the brand owner being the fountain of all knowledge and they’re part of your group, that’s totally, totally different now, and it’s a far better way because it’s actually more authentic because you are going to be challenged and questioned a lot more, and some people can’t deal with that, they have great difficulty in handling that as we see by examples of tweet chats that have gone wrong recently on Twitter where British Gas for instance, they were insulted, ridiculed, totally disrespected online, that some of it was just rude and troll-like behaviour but that’s the landscape, they were trying to deal with it like the old days, we’re not allowing that kind of conversation here, all that kind of stuff, doomed to failure so the landscape has changed, many who are used to dealing with boomers and gen x for that matter, are having trouble, certainly I think, understanding the shifted landscape that gen y inhabits, so there is a challenge, some brands do get it, without any doubt, notably big brands but this is not about big numbers, it’s about connecting with individuals in small groups or big, but what does big mean? It might be 120 is big, 15 might be big, that great magic phrase ‘it depends’ applies to everything.

CT: It’s quite a tricky channel and place to understand, I would think… I don’t know how much you understand or know about this but another chapter in my project, it is focused around generation Y, there’s been a lot of research into how narcissism and self-esteem have been linked quite closely to generation Y, so from your point of view, do you think that generation Y is a more narcissistic generation on social media, has social media played a great part in it or do you think it’s always been narcissism but social media is just a new breeding ground.

NH: Likely the latter, social media is the megaphone for it, the amplification for it, it’s hard to generalise things but narcissism is not a new thing, every generation has it, but there are now different ways of generating it and expressing it, and making others aware of it, hence things like the selfies that people do, think about people who, and I see lots of it, people who either tweet or do status updates on Facebook, effectively what the message is saying is ‘hey, hey, look at me, I’m cool’, you see a lot of that behaviour going on, that’s just part of it, you tune it out or you tune it in, depending on what you want to do, it’s a behavioural shift for everyone but the older generations definitely can’t deal with that too well, they don’t understand it and that’s the missing bit, if you understand it you can deal with it very, very simply, but it’s different, generations behaviours are different and that is not new, that happens with every single generation but we have more ways now of getting it in your face than ever before and it’s hard to ignore sometimes.

CT: So rather than it increasing, it’s basically just been amplified from what’s already there because

obviously we have much bigger ways and quicker ways of connecting now…

NH: I think it has been amplified or it has stimulated behaviours because of what you can now do to make others aware of your narcissism, and I don’t believe it’s a new thing that’s emerged or it’s suddenly grown because of social media, although you could argue are we a chicken and an egg conversation on this topic, I do believe that this is not a new thing, people have always been, some people, each of us I suppose in one way or another, are like that to a certain extent, perhaps and now we are able to demonstrate it in ways we couldn’t before, to more people, including people we don’t know at all and so part of it I suspect, if you talk to a psychologist or behavioural scientist of some type would be a lot to do with simply standing out from the crowd and getting attention, getting noticed but I’m not a psychologist… but I tend to observe that, you tend to see it, behaviours that certainly suggest that.

CT: So putting that into a business context, do you think businesses have sort of realised that your customer in store might be the same person sitting behind the computer but their personality isn’t necessarily the same online and offline, do you think that they realise that and they could perhaps need to market to that same person in two different ways because their online and offline personality is different?

NH: Yeah, generally they don’t realise that, but in some cases, you see examples in that people in those companies do recognise that but not enough though, I continually get surprised when I’m talking to companies where I learn of the sheer lack of understanding of the broad landscape where I would have expected them to have understood it better, so there is a lot of work to do in that and indeed, those who get it, will win out in the end, I believe, those who don’t or choose to ignore what is happening, they’re doomed, in my view, many of them will not be around in ten years time, some of these businesses will not exist, one of the interesting stats I saw in another report I saw that I was reading, I think was America of course, was talking about the Fortune 500, which is the 500 biggest companies in America, 40% of the companies in that list in 2000 were not there at all in 2010, so in 10 years, nearly half in that list were not in that kind of top ranking of American businesses and you see a similar thing here with the FTSE 100, not that they’ve gone bust, but they’ve slipped out, they’re no longer the prime place they used to be, their fortunes have changed because they haven’t changed and that’s not easy for many, and indeed, everything we’re talking about is to do with change, without any question, organisational change typically, from a business point of view, because the lack of engagement you see or a great deal perhaps of the way in which people don’t seem to be doing it be very well, you kind of say because the marketers are idiots or they don’t do it very well, it’s often organisational issues that prevent them, there’s blockages, there’s silos, there’s fiefdoms, there’s resistance to change, lack of leadership, all of that, so the biggest issue from my point of view is not about social media at all, it’s not even about this other thing called social business, it’s definitely about age of context that Israel and Scoble talk about, it’s all to do with organisational change, it’s adapting and evolving, to see what the Age of Context talks about and what it means to these businesses because the old ways of, you know, you’ve got your product or your service and that you can advertise and people come knocking on your door, those days are gone, because people know a lot more about your brand than you might, they certainly know more about how they want to use your brand than you do and so, hence you see those behaviours different, and some people trying to engage with people in the ways that are comfortable to those people, not to the brand, so something has shifted big time, which is that your customers are in charge, not you, if anyone’s in charge, actually no one’s in charge, and that is, in my view, what makes things so damned interesting to be honest.

CT: We’ve gone through most of my questions now, but my final question would probably be what would you say to a brand or a business who says they’re not on social media or they don’t understand it, what would be your key advice to them?

NH: My key advice to them would be to, I think what I would do firstly is understand why they’re not, and if they think they don’t need it, they don’t see the relevance of it or probably, more honestly, they don’t understand it, is to help them understand it and part of that would be to show some very, very simple research. A good test for me, and I’ve done this quite a few times, is to ask someone who says that to me within a company, do you know what people use google search for who end up on your site, how they get there, what key word drove the search and 99.9 times out of 100, they don’t know, there is your problem, because you need to know what people are searching for, because it isn’t brand names,

it’s typically emotive sentences, how do I do X or what is Y, Z or whatever, it’s not Coca-Cola, it’s not raincoat… It might be raincoat as opposed to Burberry, so if someone types raincoat, you want to make sure you show up in the fashion brands. The point I’m making is that you need to know what are the things, the people that you’re interested in, what are they interested in online, and does it match what you are interested in online, if it does you’ve got a great connection, but typically it won’t, because most people with websites, and I’m not even talking social, I’m talking brochure ware websites have all the key words, the SEO stuff in there that doesn’t match what people are searching for, so you need to do that, you need to listen, you need to understand so simple research will give you a huge amount of information and too many people don’t do even that and I’m not talking about hiring some consulting form who does all the analytics online, a simple google alert, your own research will help you, using some of the free tools online out there, that tells you for instance, who’s saying what on Twitter, about you who’s saying what on Google Plus, who’s saying what on Facebook, what about Instagram, what about Flickr, even photobucket, you can do searches to find out is your brand being mentioned, you can do research which tells you this, and then you do it yourself, you make sure you check google search, make sure you’re not logged into a Google account anywhere and just type in things you think people are looking for and see if your brand or company or anything related to your interests show up in the first screen or two, one click on the scroll bar, two screen fulls, you can see whether you’re there or not, typically you’re not, you might find your competitors there, you mind find lots of people talking about your brand on social, did you know about that, if you did, what have you done about it, have you engaged with them, have you done anything, typically they haven’t, many people that I’ve talked to, many small to medium sized businesses are tweeting, they’ve got a Facebook page, if you ask them why, they can’y answer you readily, so they say I’m on Twitter, everyone’s on Twitter, I’ve got to be there, you’re typing away and you’re wondering why you’re not getting any engagement, because you’re shouting in the dark, you’re not talking about things people are interested in, plus, many people can go about it the wrong way, there is an art to engaging on Twitter, particularly when you start out, some people naturally get it, that’s like most things, some people who engage in social shouldn’t be doing it at all, because they’re not very good at it, now that’s not a fault, it’s like saying someone’s a good speaker and someone else isn’t, someone can write well and the other fella can’t, this is no different to that, count your blessings if you’ve got someone in your marketing department who’s a natural communicator, is an engaging person who is connecting well with people online, that person is really going to help you a lot. I don’t know whether that’s answered your questions, you know, you need to be online as a brand or any kind of business, I would argue with anyone that you must have a presence online because that’s going to be critical to you in the next decade, not in 10 years but within 10 years, so 3 to 5 to 7 so, you know, you can look at all sorts of surveys, there’s one I was looking at the other day about TV advertising in America, online is now almost the same value as the amount of money brands spend on television advertising, so you know, there’s a milestone and that’s going to come here as well, you see, things have changed and then you look at what people do, I mean I did this afternoon in the supermarket, I took a photograph of a chocolate bar, a Wonka chocolate bar, and I made some quip about you know, is the golden ticket in here, if you’ve seen Willy Wonka the film you understand, and I stuck it up on Instagram and it’s had you know, 50 likes already and 3 or 4 comments and reshares, is the brand paying attention, it’s actually owned by Nestle, that brand, are they paying attention? I have no idea, so you know, I’m not expecting them to tweet to me but they should notice that because they’re brand name was mentioned, so that’s useful knowledge and it may or not mean anything to them but they need to know so they know whether to filter it out or in and there are loads of automated tools that will do that for them, they know that in Nestle, they’ve got a very sophisticated operation to track mentions of everything online, not just Twitter but online generally, so you need to be online, you need to be on the social web, not just the world wide web, you need to be in the right places, you need to know where the people you’re interested in are.

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appendix 5 - jordan mann interview

75

appendix 6 - interview with emma griffiths

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appendix 7 - designer forum company profile

audience

students

freelancers small companies

large companies

creative sector

trend forecasting and market information membership organisation

979 followers

294 likes

104 followers

28 followers

110 followers

5 followers

membership categories

largest category

500 members

6.25weekly tweet

average

0.5monthly blog post average

1.25weekly

facebook post average

low

verylow

verylow

social media aim: increase awareness and company members

77

appendix 8 - visual inspiration

DIGITAL

GLITCH

electronic

pixelate

78

tech takeover

vibrant

energetic

signal79

apendix 9 - critical path

week 10

week 28

week 11

week 12

week 13

week 14

week 15

week 16

week 17

week 18

week 19

week 20

week 21

week 22

week 23

week 24

week 25

week 26

week 27

prim

ary

& Se

cond

ary

rese

arch

essa

y pl

an

write repo

rt (research continues

design & make

first

draft

second

draft

final

write up

prin

t

hand in

daily schedule examples

80

hand in

chloe taylor N0376209