Social Nerdia » pop culture

Simon Mainwaring talks We First & the Future of Capitalism Through the Lens of Social Tech

Esteban Contreras — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:13:57 +0000

Simon Mainwaring is founder of We First, a social branding consulting firm that helps companies use social media to build communities, profits and positive social impact. Simon is also the author of the book by the same name. Read my interview with Simon below, and make sure to follow him on Twitter @SimonMainwaring and find out more about the book at www.wefirstbook.com.

1. What led you to write “We First?”

I wrote “We First” for both personal and professional reasons. I was fortunate enough to have a long advertising career but still felt unfulfilled. I didn’t feel like there was an alignment between who I am as a person and what I did on a daily basis. With that in mind, I read the transcript for Bill Gates’ Creative Capitalism speech he gave at the World Economic Forum in which he said that government and philanthropy can’t fix the world on their own, they need the private sector to get involved. I saw this as an opportunity for me to find more fulfillment by becoming more purposefully engaged and also to use my skill sets to make a contribution. That was the genesis of writing the book.

2. What makes this book unique and why do people need to read it?

The book is unique for a couple of reasons. It does an effective job of consolidating a lot of different discussions going on right now, whether they’re about the future of capitalism, philosophical debates about self-interest, globalization, emerging technologies, the future of the developing world, and the impact of social technology. Specifically, the book is unique because it looks at an issue that many people have discussed: the future of capitalism through the lens of social technology. Mass adoption of social media has only occurred in the last three or four years, so what makes the book unique is that it looks at these questions through the lens of this new technology and provides three fundamental new solutions. First is a new partnership between brands and consumers connected by social technology and aligned around shared values that creates a third pillar of social change in addition to government and philanthropy. The second is the concept of contributory consumption, which builds on precursors like ‘1% for the Planet’ but extends to include not only retail, credit card, online, and mobile transactions, but also virtual goods when applying the concept of contributing a small portion of the sale of every good or service to a cause. Thirdly, the book proposes the formation of the Global Brand Initiative, which is a federation of brands that would combine their efforts and expertise to bring the best of the private sector into the social change space. So the book is unique because it lays out these three concepts.

3. It seems like people tend to come together in the midst of trials. What does that mean in a socially connected world?

Perhaps the most powerful impact of social media is its ability to connect people around what they care about. In times of trials, there are many pressing issues that motivate people to hope and work for change. In the last few years this has included everything from addressing persistent crises like hunger, disease and child mortality, through to unforeseen emergencies like the earthquake in Haiti, through to challenges the developing world faces such as the persistent recession after the global economic meltdown. Whatever the issue, social media allows people to connect around these shared concerns and to take action together, which is the most effective way to scale our response to these crises.

4. What do you think about companies generating awareness for causes they support by adding a dollar value donation to social media actions?

This is a critical, new dynamic that needs to be embraced by the private sector if we are going to meet the challenges we face with equal force. Now, realistically, you’ll never get the entire private sector to commit, but if we only see a five-to-ten percent shift in engagement by large corporations, and if they only donate a fraction on the dollar towards causes that are in alignment with their core values, we can systemically scale the contributions that are raised towards addressing pressing social issues. As such, the private sector and its untapped potential represent an enormous opportunity to create a third pillar of change in addition to government and philanthropy.

5. What are some of the main things that brands can do today to enhance the overall customer experience using social media?

Oddly enough, the most unnecessary mistake a brand can make is to see social media as an end in itself. This technology is just another platform that allows people to connect emotionally. By doing so, brands can build loyal customers that generate word-of-mouth advertising that ultimately impacts their bottom line. With that in mind, the most effective thing a brand can do is define what it stands for, articulate its core values and act on the basis of those values and then communicate such efforts consistently.

6. Some technologies are truly disruptive. What are some of the emerging trends we see today that you think will disrupt markets and our thinking?

I believe that in the space of a few short years, we’ll find it hard to imagine a time when customers didn’t have multiple platforms and channels through which to talk about brands with their friends and community. It will seem almost absurd to people that citizens and consumers were largely told what to think, do or buy using print, television or radio alone, and there was really no channel for them to have a dialogue with those institutions. So I think this is perhaps the most important, disruptive element in social media in that it has shifted the dynamic between institutions, whether it’s the government or corporation, from a broadcast/ monologue approach to a dialogue between customers and brands, or citizens and institutions. This has enormous implications for leadership, organizational structure, customer service and, obviously, advertising. As such, social media will transform the business marketplace as radically as the digital revolution did in the early ‘90’s.

7. Live streaming video has been around for some time but it’s still not widely used. Do you think we’ll eventually find ourselves in a world where everybody streams their life in real-time?

I don’t see the live-streaming of our lives as the most obvious or natural consequence of the new connections between people brought about through social media. My sense of it is that social media facilitates the building of communities around what people care about, so it’s a shared or ‘we’ experience, rather than simply being another tool to demonstrate a ‘me’ mentality, which is obviously what informs live-streaming your life to others at all times. In a sense, what people are looking for is human connection, meaning and hope for the future rather than simply a media outlet through which to promote themselves to others. Naturally, there will be exceptions to that rule, but by and large, my sense is that live-streaming video will just be another way of distributing content that has to be meaningful and impactful to people for people to watch it.

8. Anything that goes up online eventually comes to light. If somebody were to look at a feed of content about your life 50 years from now, what kind of story do you hope the feed will tell?

My hope would be that the story shows an alignment between who I am as a person and what I did in my daily life and career, and that my efforts would combine with others to help shift the conversation in the private sector towards more consistent, purposeful engagement that improves the lives of others.

9. What’s the process of writing a book like? Any advice for first-time authors?

Writing a book was something I had no understanding of when I went into it, and only on the other side of it did I realize how little I knew. Someone said to me recently that writing a book is not about the finished book in your hand, but what you learn about yourself along the way. I can tell you now that is absolutely true. It tests your finances, it tests your energy, it tests your intellect, and, like any large commitment, it forces you to grow. If I was to give any advice to a first time author, it would be that, like any brand, we need to recognize that we must now all be community architects. Even if you’re writing a book, you need to consider all the different channels that you can use to build a community that will eventually be the marketplace for your book. This involves blogging, tweeting, using Facebook, creating content on YouTube, and basically bringing to life the intellectual property of your book through different channels in a way that will stimulate people’s interest, engage their feedback, and create a sizeable marketplace for the launch of your book.

The Social Network: 10 Things I Liked and 10 Things I Disliked

Esteban Contreras — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 08:27:28 +0000

I just watched The Social Network, a fictional movie about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires.” Below are some of the things I liked, some of the things I disliked, and a few final thoughts.

Liked:

10. I laughed every time the Winklevoss Twins were referred to as “The Winkelvii.”
9. The entire cast did a great job of creating believable and likeable characters.
8. About 30% of the movie is accurate, making some of the basic facts of the movie.. well, facts.
7. The scene in which Mark goes up to Case Capital (Sequoia): showing up late and wearing pajamas.
6. The movie can be enjoyed by anyone.
5. The music is great. Nice job Trent Reznor.
4. Many of the geeky computer moments, including the FaceMash hacks, were pretty realistic. I’m glad there were no ridiculous computer scenes a la “Hackers” and “The Net.”
3. The movie is based on a fantastic book you really need to read: “The Accidental Billionaires.”
2. The dialogue (aka conversations, ha!) is awesome. Just like the book, you get hooked from the very beginning.
1. This amazingly well shot, directed, and written movie is about Facebook, and that shows just how culturally relevant Facebook has become.

Disliked:

10. The Winklevii are really only a footnote in the history of Facebook. The movie, and the book, augment their relevance a bit too much.
9. There are too many stereotypes. Geeks are portrayed as loser-jerks without vision. Girls are portrayed as dumb objects. Ivy League students are portrayed as sex-crazed, shallow, and arrogant intellectuals.
8. About 70% of the movie is inaccurate, making most of the conversations in the movie completely false.
7. The scene in which Mark goes up to… Case Capital?? What the? Why make the movie about Mark and Facebook, shoot it in Harvard, and then fictionalize names of companies like Sequoia?
6. The movie can be enjoyed by anyone.
5. I only noticed the music because I wanted to notice it.
4. The most important moment in Facebook history was when it went live for the first time, but it seemed like that moment took less than 5 seconds in the movie. Hmm…
3. Many of the best parts of The Accidental Billionaires, including the ending, didn’t make it into the movie.
2. As great as Mark’s lines in the movie are, the movie turns Mark into something he clearly is not. There should be a big disclaimer at the beginning of the film expressing just how fictional it is.
1. The movie is about Facebook, but Aaron Sorkin is not even on it. Which is enough indication that the movie is only kind of about Facebook, without truly respecting the unstoppable awesomeness and world changing web site/platform that Facebook really is. Not cool that Sorkin can so boldly take advantage of Facebook without actually using it.

Final thoughts:

The Social Network is a great movie that I really enjoyed and highly recommend. However, it seems to have been brought to life by people that just don’t get it. Sure, it’s great entertainment, great filmmaking, and great acting, but without Mark’s name on it and without it being about Facebook, no one would’ve cared about it. The movie will be successful in huge part by osmosis, but it unfortunately does not really comprehend or share the big picture beyond the e-mails, the lawsuits, and the Hollywood fluff: Facebook was (and is) a brilliant idea that was brilliantly executed with a brilliant vision, resulting in one of the most brilliant companies on Earth.

Guide to Samsung Galaxy Tab Initial Web Reactions and First TV Commercial

Esteban Contreras — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:56:39 +0000

The Samsung Galaxy Tab was unveiled today at IFA in Berlin. As Samsung USA‘s Social Media Manager, I’m a bit biased about all things Samsung (and Android in general), but I’ve seen the Galaxy Tab myself and it is truly an impressive device. I’ll keep sharing my thoughts on Twitter @SamsungEsteban & @SocialNerdia, but here are links to initial reactions from around the web so you read some previews/reviews and watch some videos/photos.

Stay tuned to @SamsungTweets and facebook.com/samsungusa for the latest news about the Galaxy Tab in the U.S.

Disclaimer: While I am employed by Samsung, the views expressed on this post are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samsung.

Pop17′s Sarah Austin speaks about Brands on Social Media, Facebook Places, Foursquare, and Lifecasting

Esteban Contreras — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:04:54 +0000

Sarah Austin was one of the first live streaming, life-casters popularized on Justin.TV and she is the founder of Pop17, “a collaborative blogging platform and web show that covers and tracks emerging web trends and tells the stories behind what’s going in social media.”

Sarah and I have a SXSWi 2011 Panel Proposal with Brandon Prebynski, Joel Cheesman, Christopher Kahle and Ryan Paugh. We’d really appreciate your votes and comments at http://bit.ly/howtogetajob by August 27th, 2010.

Listen to this entire 38th episode of “The Social Nerdia Show!” with Sarah Austin on the Flash player below. You can also subscribe on iTunes, stream from your phone on Stitcher, and listen to upcoming shows LIVE on blogtalkradio. Some show highlights and quotes are below. Enjoy!

Brands on Social Media

”When brands become a part of the community, it really feels like the brand is like your friend. You really love them, like you would a real person. In social media, they take on attributes of people because there are personalitieis behind the brand making tweets, answering questions, customer service, and establishing relationships with people, connecting with people on their interests, and offering something back to the community.”

“Ford’s really great. I had such a time doing the Ford Fiesta Movement. I got to drive a car around and go on all these adventures. It was also a competition. I got to do interviews with Ford designers. It’s interesting to see them being really progressive. Ford used to not appeal to the Millenial demographic. Ford’s really changed and become hip.”

“Companies like Virgin America are doing a really good job. They appeal to a tech demographic and people in social media really like flying on Virgin America. I was able to meet with them and interview Richard Branson. They are really involved in social media and they value people in tech. They syndicate shows like “Wine Library TV” by Gary Vaynerchuck.”

Facebook and “The Social Network” Movie

“Facebook has taken over the world. They own everything but China and they have all the conversations and connections all over the world.”

“To some people, things aren’t official until it’s on Facebook.”

”Movies are starting to document a real movement, a social media revolution, and it’s really hitting the mainstream.”

Foursquare

”I use Foursquare and have been using it for a while. I have a lot of friends there. If I want to know where my friends are right now, I’ll get on Foursquare. Facebook Places hasn’t quite reached that with me yet. I’m still on Foursquare and plug that in to Facebook.

” It will be interesting to see how developers use Facebook Places and do something cool with it. I don’t think this means Foursquare is over. I think they have to create more relationships with businesses, maybe small local business, so they can provide value on Facebook and stay on there.”

Live Streaming Platforms and Privacy

“Each of the platform has its advantages. There’s just a lot going on. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out when YouTube starts to get into the picture.”

“These sites are going in different directions so what will make them stand out for the long-run will be withstanding all the legal issues that they’ll have to go through, and making the sites safe and guarding by age, demographics, and region. The content and making these sites as secure as possible will be some of their most valuable developments.”

“I use Justin.TV and I have a lot of information on there. I’ve had 10 million video views and 27,000 followers there. These are people that have a lot access and have know me about 5 years. I dont really know the informationa bout the people watching me. Having more peripherals set up and have security on my broadcasts. Privacy is a big issue and whichever of these companies can tackle that will have a huge advantage over the competition.”

Word of Mouth

“Word of mouth is one of the most powerful communication tools because people believe that more than anything else. That is the most convincing element.”

Sarah the Geek

“I’m a geeky filmmaker. That’s what I’ve been doing for 13 years. Anything about film making I love to geek out on.”

Interviewing Others

“I think the secret to a good interview depends on whether you’re trying to get a person’s story or trying to get a story out of them. There’s a web of six degrees of separation… everyone is very accessible and the more people that become accessible it opens a lot of doors. What I really wanted to do is capture a positive angle of growth and success, not only contributing to one personal success but also to what they are doing for their communities.”

“I feel like everybody in social media has something to give back to the community and my way of giving back is providing media, documenting and doing interviews.”

Acting

“I took a theater class once. I did act in an indie film that was about a video blogger, it was a horror film. I dabbled in it a little bit, but nothing serious.”

Alternative Careers

“If I had to do something else, it would be something sporty. I’d like to do something where I’m physically active. This might sound silly, but the career before I was thinking about before before was being a park ranger. I hike a lot. It’s beautiful here.”

Our SXSW 2011 Panel Proposal

“We’ll provide a lot of information about how to get a job using social media and how to leverage social media for your career.” http://bit.ly/votesxsw2011

From the MTV Movie Awards to the NBA Finals, Stamen Visualizes What Matters on Twitter

Esteban Contreras — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 02:22:39 +0000

The MTV Movie Awards are happening right now and I don’t have MTV. I’m not a big fan of most pop music and blockbuster movies, but I must say I am always curious, especially from a marketing perspective. Knowing that Stamen Design had created a very cool Twitter data visualization for the VMAs in 2009, I went to MTV.com looking to see if they had done it again. And alas, I found Tweet Tracker.

Stamen knows how to visualize the crazy stream of text and links and hashtags that is Twitter, and this time was no exception. I was soon able to see comments about how awkward Kristen Stewart was, how surprising Sandra Bullock’s appearance was, and who won what, when, and even why. My initial thought was that this new Tweet Tracker did not look as good as the VMAs one did (and I certainly missed Kanye’s big face due to all the very interesting and opinionated tweets), but the functionality of Tweet Tracker goes further by letting you dive deep into what people are really saying in one of two ways:

“Cloud”

Or “Stripped”

Of course, the MTV Movie Awards were not my main concern tonight. My main concern was working on a presentation while watching the NBA Finals between the LA Lakers and the Boston Celtics. I do get ABC (thank God for free over-the-air digital television), but I was wondering about what everyone was saying on Twitter.

I could go to Twitter and search for “Lakers” or “Finals,” but a data visualization does the sorting and analyzing for you, so I was excited to find the Post-Season Twitter Playoffs sponsored by Nike (and of course, created by Stamen).

I am quite interested about Stamen’s Eddy, the “media aggregation platform built for the public display of up-to-the-minute activity on realtime services like Twitter” that was used for this Nike/NBA visualization.

You can find all of Stamen’s fantastic work, including the the “Olympic Tracker” Twitter visualization on NBC.com for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, at www.stamen.com.

Filmmaker Siok Siok talks about Twittamentary and the Chinese Legend that is Twitter

Esteban Contreras — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:57:16 +0000

“My whole approach to making this film is similar to open source web development,” said Tan Siok Siok when I asked her about Twittamentary. On the most recent The Social Nerdia Show!, I had a conversation with her to talk about this unique documentary, which she referred to as a “project about Twitter using Twitter to make it happen, and the power of the real-time web.”

Listen to the entire conversation with Siok Siok on the Flash player below. You can also subscribe on iTunes, stream from mobile phones on Stitcher, and listen to upcoming LIVE shows on blogtalkradio.

Siok Siok explained that traditional filmmaking is “very secretive” because it is important to keep the idea away from anyone who could steal it. “What’s unusual about this project is that we crowdsourced it,” she told me. From ideas like a “meetup road trip” to mobilizing people to “generating leades for the shoot,” the Twitter community has made it possible for many to get personally involved. One such example happened in Denver, CO, where Siok Siok’s team was stranded at a bus station at midnight. Someone read her tweets and soonafter picked them up and let them stay with him for the night. “The film shows that Twitter works.”

Most people have not been immersed in Twitter enough to see its value and many are still skeptics. Siok Siok herself found it a bit pointless at the beginning. “I thought it was the weirdest application in the planet,” she explained. “There’s a bunch of people talking out loud, to no one in particular.. it’s a very weird idea, really bizzarre.” But with some time, “day after day, you really do become friends with others… it opens up an entire world just by talking to someone from a different nation, group, niche or language.”

Siok Siok is originally from Singapore and she spends about half of the year in China so we talked about how people adopt and use social media differently around the world. While Singapore “comes very close to the West in their use of social media,” it is not as easy to get on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube in China “because you have to use a VPN.” What may be surprising to many is that ”even without the blockage the Chinese have a preference for local sites.” While many of us are used to the big three social networks, Siok Siok shared that there are “a dozen clones of Twitter focused on different niches” in China.

“The people who use Twitter in China are the globalized tech elite at the top of the pyramid and they tend to be bilingual,” said Siok Siok. That doesn’t mean that Twitter isn’t known though because “the rest of the population have heard about it.. it’s like a legend for those who don’t have any friends who have actually used it.”

Those relatively few Chinese who are on Twitter have a chance to express a bit more fully than we do. “Chinese is a very economical language,” she told me. “You can say much more in 140 characters than in English.. much more complete thoughts.”

If you’d like to get involved in Twittamentary, reach out to @SiokSiok on Twitter or visit the web site so you can submit your story and nominate others.

The World Wide Web is using Facebook to Personalize Your Experience

Esteban Contreras — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:07:41 +0000

Social Media is really all about this: integrating life and technology.

Facebook is the most widely used, widely known, and perhaps widely trusted social network in the world. As someone who got on Facebook when it first launched for universities (I was part of the SMU network before most people knew what Facebook was), I’ve seen Zuckerberg & Co. grow and change through the years, and one thing is for sure: Facebook has a bold and ambitious vision to become the web’s social platform.

I vividly remember having conversations in which people made fun of Facebook back when MySpace was “the social network.” I also remember making fun of Facebook myself… only to jump in a few days later and realize that social media was what I wanted to do with my life. I figured that the social web is full of visionaries and I’d rather spend my time learning from them and becoming a bit more like them (creative risk-takers with ideas that could change the world), than simply doing the whole get-a-job-to-buy-the-groceries thing. The social web was is fascinating and it’s evolving at a pace that is astounding. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook eventually actually try to connect us to everything (like I jokingly predicted a year ago).

Anyways, if I’m right in saying that social media is about the integration of life and technology, then Facebook is really unto something.

As the Social Media Manager for Samsung Electronics, I worried a bit when the rumors about the terminology changes from “Become a Fan” to “Like” started to emerge. I wondered about what Facebook was thinking about and whether this would actually be good for users (because if it’s not good for users, it’s not good for anyone in the long-term). I like to think that most of the people who decided to join our Facebook Fan Page (sorry, but I will probably call it a ” Fan Page” for a while) are real fans, so saying good-bye to that word seemed confusing at best. The word “Fan” had seemed perfect for the longest time because it was like making an emotional decision: “Yes, I am a fan!”

I also figured there was something greater going on, something more “visionary” than simply changing the word with which people decide to associate themselves to a brand or a band or a book or a personality on Facebook.

After hearing the announcements from Facebook’s f8 Conference, and seeing the new “Like” button appear on sites like Levi’s Store and NHL (as well as the interesting “Recommend” button on CNN, and the newly socialized version of Pandora), I got excited. Very excited.

Maybe a bit too excited for my beautiful wife (and the average person) to understand.

I won’t get into the details about the new Graph API and Social Plugins, but I highly recommend RWW’s “Definitive Guide for Publishers,” Shiv Singh’s “Internet’s Glue” argument, Dave Winer’s not-so-optimistic thoughts, Dare Obasanjo’s “Web Dev Perspective,” and Jeremiah Owyang’s “First Take Analysis.”

Make sure you also check out Scobleizer’s “Facebook Ambition” post.

The fact is that I like the social web and I am fascinated by apps/services/sites like Twitter, Foursquare, Plancast, Yelp, Digg, Stitcher, DailyBooth, Cinch, and 23andMe. ChatRoulette frightens and intrigues me, but the idea makes sense in the world we live in, and I’m guessing it makes more sense to the next generations than my own.

I don’t actually use most of the vast array of ”integrations of life and technology,” but I think they give us a better glimpse about each other’s lives and about human interaction as a whole.

While most people don’t get excited about the concept of the internets, and probably don’t think about it much, many of them (getting close to 500 million) are on Facebook. And they’re on Facebook a lot.

My wife, parents, grandparents, pre-teen cousins, friends from High School I never thought I’d see again, and pretty much anyone with an internet connection that I know of.. is on Facebook.

It’s a bit surreal when you think about it.

People are on Facebook because it’s easy to get immersed. It’s easy to connect. It’s easy to reveal your identity, and to be yourself with your friends. The complexity of Facebook disappears when you see your friends’ thoughts, pictures, videos, and dare I say it, pokes.

The idea of extending the world’s best social network, into any web site, in order to bring a huge part of the social web into it, is simply brilliant. It was a really good move by Facebook.

Of course, there are a few scary parts in this, including privacy concerns and the potential for evil (with great power comes the ability take advantage of that power).

More than anything, Facebook Connect, the Graph API, and the world-wide-web “Like” button continue to integrate life and technology in a real-time, creative, and even somewhat perplexing way that adds social context to the web.

It’s hard to predict exactly where this is all going. But, if people like it, use it, learn, and innovate from it, this could be a wild and fun ride that further connects us, and hopefully takes us offline a bit to meet for lunch to talk about how much we like Jarome Iginla, and how excited about the 2010 World Cup we have been for the last 4 years.