1000heads has been involved with the phenomenon that is Like Minds for two years now, and anyone who has attended one of their conferences, summits, immersive workshops or networking events will understand why.
Like Minds isn’t your average self-congratulatory, all-talk-no-action social media echo chamber. The organisation, led by the charismatic, down to earth double-act Drew Ellis and Scott Gould aims “to create a platform where participants can join fellow like minds in order to inspire one another and make those ideas happen, all on a level that is accessible both financially and structurally.”
Which means an emphasis on action; no bullshit; getting out of London; and on garnering insight from a huge range of thinkers and innovators from all sorts of backgrounds and specialities.
This year’s autumn’s conference, ‘Innovation + Opportunity’, takes place in a couple of weeks on 19-21st October and we’d love to see you there.
In June 2010 I headed to Helsinki to take part in a Like Minds Conversations event, speaking at the Nokia-sponsored conference on augmented reality and then heading to a villa to develop a social strategy for the Finnish tourist board.
This year, we’ve got a packed schedule – on Wednesday morningI will be presenting a keynote on ‘Graveyards vs Maternity Wards, or Culture vs Creativity’; on Thursday afternoon we’re running a word of mouth immersive workshop, before our CEO Mike explains why ‘Conversation is the Media of Now’; and on Friday morningJames takes the floor with ‘The 5 Word of Mouth Moments of 2011.’
We’ll be speaking (and listening) alongside some extraordinary talent such as Rupert Turnbull, Publisher of Wired UK; Craig Hepburn, Global Director of Digital for Nokia and John Bessant, Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Exeter University. And, knowing Like Minds, there will be plenty of laughter, eating, drinking and late-night-epiphanies as speakers and attendees alike explore Exeter, swap ideas and get to know each other as friends.
I spent yesterday afternoon in a 4-hour Developing Social Business workshop, hosted by the excellent folks at LikeMinds and attended by sterling social practitioners such as Lloyd Davis and Benjamin Ellis and a variety of brands from Stardoll to Investec.
What was most interesting to me was the fact that, although we covered a broad range of topics from organisational models to social media guidelines, internal comms platforms to leadership styles, the conversation kept coming back again and again to the frightening tendency of social to collide the personal with the professional.
How careful should you be when posting opinions online? What are you liable for as an employee? Should employers interfere with personal venues, providing positive guidance and encouragement, or simply step back?
When does a personal opinion have professional impact?
This has become a big roadblock of fear that companies get stuck behind when thinking about becoming social, and there are no easy answers. But it’s essential that we make some kind of peace with this uncertainty . This issue exemplifies the fact that people-centred business necessarily brings a host of ethical and cultural challenges, and often trust, common sense and giving permission to act and yes, maybe fail, are our only enablers to move on.
Benjamin Ellis made the excellent point that this is a relatively new dilemma; in the past our work and personal selves were one, as we lived in geographically bound communities where our identity embraced both. Thanks to the transparency of social media, we are in some ways going back to this state where we have to consider our whole selves as visible to colleagues, bosses, potential employers, competitors and family and friends.
I have three main thoughts.
Basically, this is a good thing. People should not be hiding or masquerading their real selves at work, and employers need to start accepting that for most of their customers or colleagues, discovering that Mark guy cross-dresses at weekends or that Jane hates the HR woman is not going to matter one iota. If someone is moaning about you with good reason, focus on tackling the problem and treating them better, not restricting what they say. If they’re just moaning, fine, it happens. We all do it. It won’t collapse the business.
Online word of mouth may be more widely and permanently visible, but the same principles should apply as offline WOM. Do not libel, do not betray confidences, and do not stand up and yell something in a crowded pub (or Facebook page, or blog, or Twitter feed) you aren’t willing to defend. Even more so if you’ve invited your boss or clients along to that pub (or platform). Otherwise, go ahead and be yourself. But if you want to criticise other people, you have to give them the right to do the same to you.
As Lloyd Davis pointed out, this heightened transparency and accountability means that businesses are going to become increasingly conscious about who they hire. If you don’t think that a candidate truly reflects your values as a business, then why would you want them in your team? Again, to me this is a positive development.
The legal situation around employee word of mouth continues to develop with all the halting contradictions you might expect, but Andrew Gerrard did highlight one important development I was unaware of: a case last year between American Medical Response, who sacked an employee after she criticised her boss on Facebook, and the US National Labour Relations Board, who in response asserted for the first time that employers break the law if they discipline workers who post criticisms on social networks under the First Amendment for free speech.
Of course, there are exceptions. The NLRB’s Facebook page asserts that Facebook comments can lose protected status depending on where the discussion takes place, the subject matter, the nature of the outburst and whether the comments were provoked by an employer’s unfair labour practice. But in general, people simply have to be allowed to speak their mind, even if it is unpalatable to you.
There is so much more to say on this, but it is clear that businesses simply have to stop being afraid of their people, and vice versa. Micro-monitoring and disciplining of word of mouth is not sustainable, and ineffective. Approaching the issue with honesty, realism and a willingness to try is the only way past the roadblock.
If you’re a regular reader here at 1000heads you’ll know that LikeMinds has become one of our favourite things ever since our first attendance back in February of this year. I’m pleased to say that last week’s event – based around the themes of ‘Creativity + Curation’ – was no disappointment.
Unlike February’s event, where the one key takeaway (for me at least) was the audience-wide understanding of the importance of listening, this time around the lessons were much more broad; touching upon various different subjects, specialisms and industries including; Music, Film, Publishing (traditional and new) as well as other, more thought-provoking pieces along the lines of the impact of social technologies and the much-discussed ‘Big Society‘.
For me personally, the highlights came in varying forms. First, the opening Publishing ‘immersive’ session hosted by Andrew Davies of Idio was rammed to the rafters as everyone came together to discuss the impact of the social web upon the traditional publishing industry. For such a packed event, Andrew facilitated well as the rest of the group swiftly leapt from one area to another covering off not only the real value of brand/consumer relationships (throwing in some real world examples to boot) but also whether or not true curation is just filtering other people’s content.
Second, Chris Carey from the PRS, yes really – the PRS. Chris is an in-house economist for the music industry and he used the patterns that he is paid to spot day-in and day-out, to illustrate the pitfalls in any market of relying on what you think you know. His example of NBC’s mistake of turning off the Gossip Girl stream on their website was a lesson to us all.
And the third and final one (again, that spoke to me personally) was that of Benjamin Ellis. Who, with one phrase, captured the whole audience:
“A fish would be last to discover water”
– and to give that context, I’d spend some time looking over his rather awesome presentation -
Here at 1000heads we’re not very good at staying put, however lovely our offices are. At any one time a few of us are always on the road, headed to some event to speak, facilitate or simply listen, and you can always keep track of what we’re doing via our Meet Us @ calendar (just to your right on the sidebar).
Reliably outspoken ‘heads James and I at last year’s Like Minds
However, we thought we’d flag up some of the events we’ll be running or involved in over the next few weeks – there should be something to appeal to everyone, and if you’re already attending, make sure you let us know and say hi (mine’s a dirty martini). So…
Tonight James and I are heading to Like Minds 2010 in Exeter, the innovative media conference which unfolds on Thursday and Friday with an outstanding programme of keynotes and workshops themed around ‘Creativity and Curation’. We’ll be hosting lunchtime talks on word of mouth and silence, respectively. Oh yes.
Also this Friday but over in France, Lilian will be kicking off the first MeetFriday tweet-up for social and media folk in Lyon, so if you’re across the channel drop in.
On Tuesday 2nd November Dons and I will be joining New York ‘head Adam for the Digital Mission / Rep Online breakfast, and I will also be around all day available for coffees (or cocktails) and chats with anyone wanting to find out more about what we do and the word of mouth industry – just drop me a tweet or mail.
On Wednesday 10th November I am back in London running a free workshop for Royal Mail about direct mail and WOM called ‘Plugging DM into WOM: turning reach into spreadability’. Along with Benn Achilleas from Neoco, I’ll be showing direct mail practitioners how to harness a WOM approach to enhance their DM efforts – and vice-versa – so if you work in the industry sign up now.
With my WOMMA UK hat on, on Wednesday 11th November we have a morning event from Posterscope exploring ‘Social media In The Real World – Or, how the convergence of on and off line social networks with mobile & display advertising technologies is creating a new Out-of-Home communications paradigm’ – again it’s free to attend so register asap.
On Monday 15th November I’ll be talking about our work for Cancer Research UK and other great not for profit case studies at the ‘Tech For Good’ conference in London – a must if you want to find out how to harness communities for charitable causes and campaigns.
And then from 16-20th November I’ll be in Las Vegas at the WOMMA Summit 2010, moderating an international panel of WOM experts discussing ‘Nation, culture and WOM: how does consumer WOM differ across global cultures and how must brands tailor their approaches accordingly?’ We’ve also been nominated for their WOMMY Awards, once again for the undeniably wicked #NokiaNav.
Of course, the wider team will be hitting lots of other networking and learning events over the next few weeks; these are just the edited highlights. Let us know if you think we should be coming to yours.
And if you’d just like a quiet chat over a coffee, we’re always here. Except when we’re on a train or a plane, that is
Here at 1000heads we’re not very good at staying put, however lovely our offices are. At any one time a few of us are always on the road, headed to some event to speak, facilitate or simply listen, and you can always keep track of what we’re doing via our Meet Us @ calendar (just to your right on the sidebar).
Reliably outspoken ‘heads James and I at last year’s Like Minds
However, we thought we’d flag up some of the events we’ll be running or involved in over the next few weeks – there should be something to appeal to everyone, and if you’re already attending, make sure you let us know and say hi (mine’s a dirty martini). So…
Tonight James and I are heading to Like Minds 2010 in Exeter, the innovative media conference which unfolds on Thursday and Friday with an outstanding programme of keynotes and workshops themed around ‘Creativity and Curation’. We’ll be hosting lunchtime talks on word of mouth and silence, respectively. Oh yes.
Also this Friday but over in France, Lilian will be kicking off the first MeetFriday tweet-up for social and media folk in Lyon, so if you’re across the channel drop in.
On Tuesday 2nd November Dons and I will be joining New York ‘head Adam for the Digital Mission / Rep Online breakfast, and I will also be around all day available for coffees (or cocktails) and chats with anyone wanting to find out more about what we do and the word of mouth industry – just drop me a tweet or mail.
On Wednesday 10th November I am back in London running a free workshop for Royal Mail about direct mail and WOM called ‘Plugging DM into WOM: turning reach into spreadability’. Along with Benn Achilleas from Neoco, I’ll be showing direct mail practitioners how to harness a WOM approach to enhance their DM efforts – and vice-versa – so if you work in the industry sign up now.
With my WOMMA UK hat on, on Wednesday 11th November we have a morning event from Posterscope exploring ‘Social media In The Real World – Or, how the convergence of on and off line social networks with mobile & display advertising technologies is creating a new Out-of-Home communications paradigm’ – again it’s free to attend so register asap.
On Monday 15th November I’ll be talking about our work for Cancer Research UK and other great not for profit case studies at the ‘Tech For Good’ conference in London – a must if you want to find out how to harness communities for charitable causes and campaigns.
And then from 16-20th November I’ll be in Las Vegas at the WOMMA Summit 2010, moderating an international panel of WOM experts discussing ‘Nation, culture and WOM: how does consumer WOM differ across global cultures and how must brands tailor their approaches accordingly?’ We’ve also been nominated for their WOMMY Awards, once again for the undeniably wicked #NokiaNav.
Of course, the wider team will be hitting lots of other networking and learning events over the next few weeks; these are just the edited highlights. Let us know if you think we should be coming to yours.
And if you’d just like a quiet chat over a coffee, we’re always here. Except when we’re on a train or a plane, that is
How do you augment an entire country using social approaches and tools?
This was the question at the heart of the Like Minds Helsinki, the first in the Like Minds Conversations series of events – spearheaded by Drew Ellis and Scott Gould – which are held in selected international locations to be “a channel for communities to collaborate with us in addressing a subject in depth that is pertinent to the local community, and will help the community act out new innovations and new ideas.”
After learning so much (and continuing to reap the benefits) from February’s Like Minds Conference in Exeter, I was delighted to join the team in Helsinki as a panellist discussing Real Time in Real Life, particularly relating to mobile tech and augmented reality, which we use in our work for Nokia.
Discussing ‘social participation in a virtual world’ with Oisin Lunny, Alistair Duncan and Anthony Mayfield
Speakers from Wikitude and Total Immersion demonstrated the latest in augmented reality technology, while social consultant Jo Jacobs and UK MD of Habbo Hotel Oisin Lunny looked at the behaviours and insights behind the people and brands using it.
A distinct tension emerged throughout the day. Everyone was excited by the tech on offer, but many were questioning the value of how it is being used. The capacity for augmented reality has been around for a while, but few are moving beyond gimmickry to use it in genuinely useful and inspiring ways. And only a minority of people around the world have access to an infrastructure that can support such hungry streaming and video. When and how will it really blossom for good?
Morevoer, panellist Teemu Arina made a brilliant analogy with the Domesday Book, which heralded a paradigm shift around the value and social power of personal information. Constantly sharing our location, plans, likes and networks will enrich our experiences, but also usher in a whole new dynamic around privilege and security. Are we ready?
It all reminded me of Russell M Davies’ latest Wired UK column on ‘premium reality’, a dystopian vision of ubiquitous augmented advertising, with opt-out only for the wealthy few: shiver-inducing brain food.
Head buzzing, the next day I was lucky enough to progress to the summit at the incredible Villa Kataya, where some of the best innovators in the industry – the likes of Anthony Mayfield, author and Senior VP of Social Media at iCrossing; co-founder of BBH Labs Mel Exon; British digital business expert Alistair Duncan; entrepreneur Julien Fourgeaud; our client and friend Dan Goodall, Senior Marketing Manager at Nokia; and three emerging young social tech evangelists our WOM World/Nokia team invited along, to name but a few – gathered to brainstorm social strategies to help Visit Finland.
Working hard, eating harder
1000heads’ work with Tourism New South Wales gave me some insights to share in this area, and everyone had a wealth of ideas and experiences to contribute – a real learning opportunity for me personally. The Finnish spirit of sisu, a silent inner strength, can make them reluctant to shout about the attributes of their country, so the challenge was to develop practical tactics that would promote that unique Finnish quality whilst injecting a more gregarious and visible sociability into everything they do.
Facing a totally new way of thinking, Visit Finland were admirably open, flexible and enthusiastic. In true Like Minds spirit, this was a first ‘business’ event where work progressed to the sauna and jacuzzi – the level of professional expertise was equally matched by a willingness to swim in freezing lakes, yell at the England footie team, and drink cloudberry liquer.
It will be interesting to see what practical outcomes emerge from the Like Minds Helsinki Conversation in the next few months, but I for one will be taking sisu into everything I do.
And as for augmented reality and mobile? It’s Jo Jacobs’ words which continue to ring in my ears: “virtual makes reality accessible, affordable and interesting… but reality makes vritual possible.” The possibilities in reality, not the functions of technology, are what this is all about.
More to come as I digest it all over the coming weeks
Yesterday, Molly wrote about the pros and cons of having and implementing a set of social media guidelines into your company. While this kind of policy is virtually essential to any modern day brand, the problems that arise more often than not spring out of employee reluctance to take part.
What we don’t tend to talk about is what drives this activation.
That’s where our word of mouth tracking comes into it. ‘WOMTrak‘ is a whole suite of products originally designed to provide insights and analysis to inform our ongoing activation ideas. Like I said to a number of people at Likeminds on Friday, there really is no point coming up with an amazing idea if you have no information or insights to base it on.
With all of our clients, old or new, we always advise a period of listening first. Obviously with some of our more long standing accounts, this system is already in place; constantly defining and refining our creative as well as our engagement strategies moving forward. Building in reactive and creative strategies that we can execute on a six-pence.
It’s a fantastic resource to have.
Coming back from both the Likeminds conference and the subsequent summit at Bovey Castle, I feel inspired and invigorated. Each and every practitioner we met spoke of the importance of listening first, then engaging. Be that through using something as simple as a Google Alert or a fully fledged monitoring program from a specialist system like WOMTrak; make sure you listen.
Listening will provide a mean of what your people already think of you. Once you have that, you can start researching and discovering insights… and once you have that, you can start educating your staff and your stakeholders about why this is important. Sell that in and you’re on course to begin creating informed strategies that provide useful, engaging content that will not only improve your bottom line but ultimately, improve the experience of your end user.
So remember, when it comes to WOM, if you do only one thing -
Like Minds 2010 was such an inspiring and idea-packed event that it’s difficult to restrain my thoughts to the short form of a blog post. James and I headed to Exeter on Thursday night and spent the next three days with some of the most articulate and innovative folk working with brands in the social space.
At Friday’s conference, James was part of a panel discussing the controversial ‘How can dying business models innovate through people-to-people?’ and I joined Chris Brogan, Trey Pennington, Kate Day and Kristian Carter to debate ‘Where are the forward thinking organisations going next?’
Friday’s six excellent keynote speakers (Jon Akwue, John Bell, Jo Jacobs, Olivier Blanchard, Yann Gourvennec and Chris Brogan) each had a unique perspective on the challenges and possibilities of social tools and approaches, but one phrase really stood out for me – permission to act.
One of the themes across the presentations, panels and audience discussions was social media policies: how to regulate, guide or support employees’ use of the space so it becomes an asset and not a liability.
Now, I’ve crafted a few fairly detailed policies for our clients in my time, and I’ve written before about the need for basic regulations and protective processes. But as the conversation developed I discovered that I feel more strongly than I had previously suspected that policies simply don’t work. No-one reads them, and even worse, they exempt people from feeling that they have to think and make judgement calls for themselves.
John Bell‘s emphasis on training (Ogilvy employ an admirable judo-belt rating system) really hit a chord. Experience is so much more effective than explanation. And Olivier Blanchard emphasised how businesses must empower every department to have their own training and evaluation programme so the strategy and execution is custom-fit and sits in the context of a close, evolving team.
It all reminded me of Samuel Beckett’s adage ‘fail better.’ We need to allow employees the freedom to act, and yes, sometimes fail, in the space. A twenty-page policy won’t help. What will is provision of a framework whereby those failures are shared and discussed, so they can become valuable drivers of change and growth.
James blogs with a view from Bovey Castle via Flickr
On the Saturday James and I headed to the beautiful Bovey Castle for the Like Minds Summit, an intense and intensely rewarding two days with nine social opinion leaders from both agencies and brands. I can’t tell you much about it here (and that is very hard for me to do!) because a forthcoming white paper will be distilling the discoveries and best practices we thrashed out over scones., but you can get a sense of the atmosphere from this interview with me Trey filmed on Sunday. More to come as soon as we can share.
A big heads up goes to Scott Gould and Drew Ellis for impeccably organising the whole thing. And now I’m looking forward to the really exciting stuff as we all continue the conversations started at Like Minds over the following weeks. Jump in…
