Using social media for Search

News aggregation sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit are suppossed to make our lives simpler. With other folk sifting through the billions of pages to help us find what is relevant to me and my niche and vise-versa.

I have for example started using Del.cio.us as my primary search tool over Google. The Google agolorhtymn still doesnt know exactly what is of real value to my search but my peers do. However if my interests weren’t geeky 2.0 and social media I’m not sure it would still be such an effective tool perhaps Stumbleupon may be more relevant but it’s still quite US focused. You can create Google custom searches but you still have to know where you want to look its just a time saver. 

The value of using Digg and it’s homepage has long been eroded in my eyes not just by the fact that I generally don’t find anything interesting there but if you look at the last 500 front page stories on Digg, the top 10 submitters dominated stories by 31% (157 out of 500). Check out this story for more (thanks JD Rucker).

A clever chap has created a wee experiment to open up these networks called Newsfied that take us deeper beyond the homepages. Maybe this is just the key that was needed. But to me Digg, Redit and most others largely remain irrelevant but In guess that’s because I am not really connected into them yet.

It goes back to ‘The more you put in the more you get back’.

Social Gaming

For me many whole days and nights were spent locked in a room playing the Civilisation series of games as an early teen. Had not it been for my best friend at the time that would have been a very solitary experience. Ahhhh. You see there weren’t many other kids into that kind of game in my area and within my immediate circle of school friends. Whilst we couldn’t play it literally together or against one another we managed to get enthused none the less and so this was as social an experience gaming was for me until mulitplayer Fifa Football and Pro Evolution came about. We could only dream of creating our empires and playing real humans.

Earlier this year I went into the Sony HQ to hear about their up and coming Playstation Home. A second life type virtual gaming environment. They wanted to see which brands I could get involved for launch. To be honest it all looked rather flat and an visualized extension of geeky game forums with limited appeal.

However, there was some serious potential as promised by Red Bull’s developing of a brand owned island within Home to represent all their real world sporting events including; rally cars, stunt planes, dirt tracks, stunts etc. And all for free thanks to the stimulant drinks company.

The idea was not just that you play multiplayer games but that you socialize around them creating leagues group events and discussion. Nice. But everything was still pre-made and packaged up for you there was no way to really get involved in any creation other than some limited customization of avatar and Home flat.

Now excuse me for writing about something I haven’t played but recently I saw advertising for the new Playstation game Little Big Planet. To be honest it was all over the place but what really caught my eye was the take over on Sport a free sport related mag you get outside Tubes in London. On the inside cover the ad says the front covers character was designed by the readers of Sport Magazine in a competition and the back ad was entirely designed inside the game. Without kn owing much about what it was already I’m impressed that their advertising has been creating by agency and the reader base of the mag in the game.

Deeper within the mag I am introduced to the 3 tenants of the game Play, Create & Share. As you character progresses through the game they can fully customize the game around them by the tools and bits-and-bobs they collect. So if you don’t like it you only have yourself to blame! And therefore unlikely to happen.

Personalization very 2.0! They just provide the tools for you to make the game that best fits your requirement. The 2nd part is quite key that you can SHARE. Here you can share your work with the community meaning an endlessly evolving game. One of the biggest problems for gamers but revenue earners for gaming companies is that you generally complete a game in a very short space of time particularly if you are a heavy user (I have heard of people completing these games in a matter of days). Here you can give people the levels you created to play.

Now I heard a rumour that you could share all your creations not just on the LBP community area but across your whole social map inc. Myspace, Bebo, Facebook, Youtbe really easily but I can’t seem to validate that any where. Anyway I guess I will be able to find out if Santa thinks I’ve been good this year.

Gaming just keeps on fast forwarding at break neck pace so much so I fear getting such engaging games through fear of losing my girlfriend and finding out whilst holding a feeling of great accomplishment I have in reality achieved very little.

So what’s SOCIAL GLUE about?

This blog is primarily focused on how; technologies, campaigns, initiatives are being used to effectively bind people closer together through the power of social media.

I’ve worked for 7+ years in digital and always tried to be at the bleeding edge of what’s going on so the natural evolution was to become a specialist in social media.

Now I apply what I know to all clients from all disciplines including; advertising, online PR (P2PR) and getting companies at all levels, departments and sectors to understand social media can help revolutionize their businesses practices.

No longer is social media the realm of geeks its mainstream. You and your brand are being spoken about and I recommend at the very least start listening. If not to just be defensive and your guard brands reputation but more proactively to find out what the hell your customers do and don’t want.

This blog will explore successful and unsuccessful ways this has been done. Hopefully it offers inspiration to businesses at all levels that social media is only something to be scared of if your not using it. If you are it’s a powerful communication tool not just for people but for businesses. And that’s the point really buisnsess need to start thinking and acting like people.

Social media isn’t any different to the real world. Its governed by the same conventions just multiplied. Would you just gate crash a private party and start trying to sell Vodka. No. The same applies for brands in social media. People have formed networks and groups to meet and discuss or share information with a shared purpose that generally isn’t to go shopping. Perhaps if you were to contact the party organiser and and offer some free vodka, a real value social currency for most parties, just to have a presence and I’m sure you will be better received.

Back to old school blogging

It´s been over 8 months since I left my old blog to rot. Why:

-It was permanently struggling in search engines because I made the mistake of merging a previous blog´s articles into it, in the eyes of the almighty Google creating duplicate pages and getting sandboxed.

-I started using Twitter more regulary. The immediacy of exchange and conversation that micro-blogging offers compared to a fledging blog appeals to an impatient person.

-I was very busy at the time as the sole digital consultant at JWT London across over 12+ brands. Not that anything has eased up now I’m in my new job.

So that´s my excuses out of the way. Ultimately I am now running a social media agency and I can´t very well preach it and not live it. So here I am old school blogging again.