My Interview for Social Media Citizens

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Giedrius Ivanauskas for Social Media Citizens earlier this month.


G: How would you define a social media “influencer”?

GC: I define influence as being able to change other people’s behaviour or thoughts. Influencers in Social Media need not have thousands upon thousands of followers or fans, but should be able to use their connections to change behaviour and create conversations with them. Real influence also means that these actions are spread onwards to stimulate conversations in the wider community.

And of course brands can be influenced themselves, not by single powerful influencers but by many influencers speaking as one in the ‘crowd’. Look at how companies like Starbucks use consumers to influence products and services via mystarbucksidea 

G: How do you measure the influence?

GC: Funnily enough I look at the whole spread of a person’s footprint.

The rest of the interview can be read here

'This is not email''

Marketers should embrace Facebook’s ’’ this is not email ‘’ announcement

Does anyone remember Public Image Ltd’s 1983 single This Is Not A Love Song in 1983, the song's lyric lampooning the ire from some fans and the music press over the band's movement towards a more commercial style. The song's title was inspired by a line in the song "Her Story" (1979) by Virgin label stablemates the Flying Lizards, about bands 'selling out' their artistic principles for commercial success ("But you can still make money, by singing sweet songs of love... this is a love song"). Ironically, it gave the band their biggest international hit single, reaching #5 in the UK singles charts. ( source : wikipedia )

This seems to have some resonance with Facebook’s announcement  late last year (which we all knew was coming ) and has a massive impact on not just email marketers, but anyone that works in marketing, advertising, eCRM etc.