What’s the relevance of all this to me/my work?  It’s simple: if you want to connect with anyone about anything, the easiest way to do it is to tell a story.  I think we’ll see more and more brands and businesses seeking to create resonance with customers by incorporating their ’stories’ into the online/social media world.

I also love this quote of his about the reality of improving the quality of your creative output:

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

It seems it’s time for my annual blog post (I do realise that updating a blog once a year is fairly lame but there you are).

SXSWi has been incredible once again.  Initially it seemed like they had finally spoiled it by stuffing it so full of people it felt, quite often, like it would burst right open.  This is a criticism that is leveled at the organisers every year but this time it really did feel like they had taken it too far. Check out Sam Michel’s video of the queue for the keynote on the first day to see what I mean.  It felt sad that within the first day I was already thinking that the crowds may well mean that this would be my last sxsw.

And then the magic of the event starts to work on you again, it gets under your skin in a way that’s difficult to articulate.  Some highlights in no particular order:

• Seth Priebatsch’s keynote ‘Adding A Game Layer On Top Of The World‘; like an over enthusiastic puppy he bounded onto the stage to tell the audience how game theory could (and will) change the world.  It took roughly 5 minutes for him to sweep away my cynicism, “yeah, yeah, game theory blah blah”, and be blown away by both the idea and the practical applications he talked about.
• Jason Cohen – ‘From Geek To Entreprepneur’; a funny, insightful presentation about starting up a business and the challenges you face.  Too much for me to coherently summarise but his take home? “Less reading, less worrying, more doing”. Can’t argue with that.
• Chris Guillebeau and Jonathan Fields – ‘Fear & The Art of Creation‘; an inspirational discussion about what prevents us from jumping off that cliff and taking on that project/new venture/life change.  Good stuff with fresh perspective.
• Other panels, including how improv classes can help your work life, considering time in UI design, mad US scientists and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley on his vision for the future of location based services.
• Christian bringing the house down with his ‘when I got social media’ story at the amazing story-telling event Fray Cafe.

But mostly and mainly, the people.  Everybody says it, every year but it’s the people you met in the hallways and parties and fringe events that make it special.  This year it was great to meet new people and see familiar faces @Documentally @Toodlepip @Benjaminellis @Dr_Black @timesjoanna @jemimah_knight @huey @rachelclarke @Ewan.

Flying home today, leaving a piece of my head and my heart here for next year.

]]> http://prandsocial.com/2011/03/15/under-my-skin/feed/ 1 http://prandsocial.com/2010/11/03/what-a-difference-six-months-makes/ http://prandsocial.com/2010/11/03/what-a-difference-six-months-makes/#comments Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:14:04 +0000 Katie http://prandsocial.com/?p=245

Poor neglected blog.  It’s been six long months since I’ve posted.  Except it feels like about six minutes.

Anyway, so much has happened.  Many interesting developments in my own life and about a zillion fascinating things in tech land.

But tonight in particular I was reminded how quickly things can change out there in computer land.  Six months ago I did a blog post titled, ‘Where were you when?‘, it sort of related to the historical UK election and hung parliament but also to the increasing importance of location based services (having just come back from sxsw where that was all anybody was discussing).  And for six months now, on and off in training gigs, I’ve been using a quote  I scribbled down at sxsw (and apologies to whoever said it, I didn’t make a note of the name):

“Your current location (and location habits) will further enhance the delivery of your digital experiences.  Content will become increasingly aware of its surroundings and configure itself accordingly”

What a difference six months makes indeed. Google launched Google Places, which allows you to search specific for specific venues (hotels, restaurants, shops etc) by location, Facebook launched Facebook Places, a mobile app that effectively mimicked Foursquare and Gowalla by letting you share your physical location with your friends by checking into places.  And tonight they weighed in with another major, location, based development: Facebook Deals, effectively letting businesses offer deals to customers who ‘check-in’ to their venue using the Facebook app.  So again, not a new idea but what makes it so important of course it that when a heavyweight like Facebook do something, it has the potential to change everything.  For even small businesses who have a physical rather than online sales operation, this is a chance to turn ‘friends’ into actual cash sales.  This round-up by The Next Web tells you all you need to know about today’s Facebook announcements.

Here’s to the next six months.

The UK has been a strange place to be over the last week.  No-one could have predicted the bizarre turn of events that saw Cameron and Clegg shake hands on the steps of Number 10 before going in together to make a start on running the country.

And while it didn’t turn out to be the ’social media election’ that was originally predicted, the constant hum from twitter and blogs has, for me and I’m sure many others, provided a fascinating additional layer of commentary, opinion and wit.

In the tech/social media world, there has been just as much going on.  Rather than try and pull it all together into one post, I’ve gone for more of a listing, highlighting some of the more interesting stuff.

• Twitter confirmed it was beta testing its new business centre, which along with @anywhere and the ad platform underlines it’s determination to encourage business to sign up.
• Location based apps & content continue to increase in importance; Foursquare saw it’s 40 millionth check-in while Facebook announced it was teaming up with McDonalds to launch its own geo-location app.
• HP launched Gloe, an experimental app that allows you to map specific web pages onto geographical locations (I really like the look of this, it could open up so many interesting services).

So in the future when people ask you, “where were you when?” you will probably be able to tell them down to the exact spot.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vidiot/69073063/

My take – yes of course, Twitter is about people, as I've said before that's exactly why it's so popular.  But it's not as simple as saying there's no place on Twitter for brands or companies, otherwise why do accounts like @overheardatmoo work so well? Because there is still a person behind the brand.  And that's the key.  I really do believe that as long as your tweets have personality there's no reason why you shouldn't tweet as a company or brand but you have to have something to say.  And you have to want to do it.  I wonder if some of the reason digital agencies aren't tweeting much is because the individuals who feel comfortable with Twitter already have their own accounts and they don't have the extra time, or inclination to try and run another one.

1.  Set up google alerts for terms of interest – even generic ones like 'online PR' or 'social media' can bring you back some interesting results.

2.  Get FeedDemon or similar RSS feed and start subscribing to blogs.  If you're not sure which blogs to read or how to find them, your google alerts will give you a starting point and once you've found a blog that interests you, have a look at their blog roll and before long you'll be subscribing to a long list. 

3.  Join Twitter.  Honestly you have to.  The common sequence of events with a new Twitter user is a) they join b) they announce that they just don't "get it" c) never use it again. The best way to get started with Twitter is to follow some of the bloggers that you read, look at who they're following and off you go.  Like any social networking tool, the more you use it, the more you get out of it.

4. Start a blog – it gives you an idea of how blogs work, etiquette etc which is vital if you're a PR person hoping to target influential bloggers.

That's it.  No mystery, no smoke and mirrors. You just have to dive in.