http://blog.realadventure.co.uk Thoughts, musings, opinion & announcements from The Real Adventure Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:41:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Twitter have finally launched the long awaited 'Tweet Button' for sharing articles on websites and counting how many times they have been shared. This button is apparently the most comprehensive counter of retweets and shares across Twitters’ network, a crown which Tweetmeme have held until now. It is also very ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2010/08/the-official-tweet-button-has-arrived/ ...so declared the writers declared of The Cluetrain Manifesto back in 1999. It’s still enormously relevant and important, even though many of their predictions haven't yet come to pass, and the old ways of Business As Usual have proved remarkably resilient. But broadband technology and the growth of social media ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2010/02/markets-are-conversations/ If you're wandering along Oxford Street on a Friday feeling in need of a caffeine injection head on over to Debenhams, check in with Foursquare and collect your free coffee. Debenhams is one of the latest national retailers to get on board with the emerging location-based social network Foursquare. If you're ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2010/02/want-a-free-coffee-get-foursquare/ Poor old @VodafoneUK have fallen victim to the dangers of social media - and boy have they done it in style(!!)  On Friday afternoon, someone posted this homophobic remark on their @VodafoneUK twitter feed to their 8500+ followers. Ouch. Disgruntled employee perhaps? Or 'innocent' mistake posting to the wrong account? After all the ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2010/02/social-media-is-dangerous/ We've always believed that marketing and advertising works best when it delivers an emotional connection between whatever is being 'sold' and whoever is supposed to be doing the buying. No emotional reaction means no response or action. Bigger, better, faster, cleaner, tastier is all very well. But it doesn't 'get' you; like ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2010/02/its-not-called-a-wheel-its-a-carousel/ The UK has suffered national strikes in the last few weeks: harrassed men in suits emerging from protracted negotiations, oil-drum braziers burning outside locked gates, management and unions both lambasted in the press for failing to adapt to the realities of the digital age. Chris Barraclough wrote on his Brand Republic blog ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2009/11/real-never-mind-royal-mail-is-important/ I've recently had two personal experiences of customer service delivered through Twitter - twice in one week. The detail is below, but in summary: I now expect brands to respond to me when I tweet about them. Those that do, I like. Those that don’t… they don’t think I’m important enough…so they ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2009/09/social-media-delivers-customer-service/ (Inspired by a tweet from @socialmedia2day...) Marketing teams spend millions of pounds in manangement time and agency fees developing briefs, tone of voice guidelines, and executions for every single broadcast message they put out. Every comma becomes a trauma, is that wardobe choice dynamic enough, does that font project our innovativeness? ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2009/09/is-pull-the-new-push/ The work environment has changed immeasurably during my career. In my first market research job as a graduate we created slides of results, and printed them out onto acetates, which then had to dry, before being slotted into holding frames. Any changes and you had to do that slide again. ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2009/08/its-about-people-stupid/ Everything is going online, apparently: grocery shopping, newspapers, music, booking holidays. We use Facebook or MSN to talk to friends rather than telephoning, and I'm not sure when I last bought an envelope... But the largely unstoppable momentum of e-banking, e-shopping, e-everything seems increasingly driven by companies trying to drive down ... http://blog.realadventure.co.uk/2009/07/taking-customers-for-granted/