For some time I have been following the inspiring website Mixergy. Mixergy is run by a guy called Andrew Warner who co-founded a website which $30million+ in annual sales, which is an incredible figure. Andrew now runs Mixergy which is a website that is dedicated to interviewing inspiring entrepreneurs from huge companies, including the likes of Groupon etc, in order to ensure that a new generation of entrepreneurs learn from the best.
Recently Andrew Warner realised that aspiring entrepreneurs can equally learn from other entrepreneurs who have not quite made it yet, those who may have ‘failed’ in some way or another, with the intention of seeing their experience as a positive thing that can be learnt from.
Last week I was interviewed by Andrew Warner, over Skype, in an interview which lasted an hour as he asked deep and relevant questions for his ‘failed’ series. I believe that this interview should go live over the next week or so and, as soon as it does I will point you in the right direction.
In all honesty it was pretty humbling that Andrew and his team would ask me to get involved. As you may be aware from www.somestartupsfail.com I have never been ashamed of telling stories of projects that I have been involved in which have gone wrong. I am consistently pushing forward as I work towards the ‘breakthrough’ project for me.
I will let you know as soon as this interview goes live!
This is a blog that I wrote whilst working with the awesome Traffic Digital team which can be viewed as it’s original version here. However, I was reminded of this post this week and I have been thinking about it all week. I think it is relevant today, more so than ever, let me know your thoughts!
A few of the Traffic Digital team headed to the 2-Screen event on the 14th October, an event that discusses how social media has become integral to our lives. This was a very good event, and one talk in particular that stood out was given by Channel 4′s Matt Locke.
Matt gave some awesome insight into the shapes of the audiences who watch TV, which I will summarise as the following:
1. Live, synchronous shapes – those who watch events like Lambing Live & Seven Days and engage online, live, using twitter.
2. ‘Cult’ shapes – Lost and The Soprano’s fans are prime examples. They may be on twitter discussing the programme but they have a cult following and engage in the life, character, storyline and plot of the TV show.
3. Asynchronous shapes – these are viewers who like to snack on programming, users who may play the likes of Farmville etc. Matt suggested that we should look at how we should change traditional 30 & 60 minute formats in order to cater for such an audience.
4. Factual shapes – these are individuals who engage with the likes of Embarrassing Bodies or Battletfront and they engage in order to learn or with a mission in mind.
It is the final group, the factual shapes, that I would like to focus on and indeed take a step further. I would like to split ‘Factual’ into two categories: Factual Shapes (educational shows such as Embarrassing Bodies) and Activist Shapes.
I would like to focus on these Activist Shapes. Matt Locke alluded to these shapes giving examples of Channel 4′s Battlefront, a campaign show to further a cause. We have also seen this shape of audience in Channel 4′s Landshare. However, in the current economic and political climate, I believe that we are going to see a lot more of these shapes.
Alongside reflecting on Matt’s talk at 2Screen I have also been thinking about a Seth Godin talk on Tribes (see video below) and how society is coming together in specific tribes. Of course this has always been the case from the mod’s and the rocker’s, to tribe’s around specific football teams. However, with the news in recent days I believe that we are going to see people form more and more ‘tribes’ with an activist purpose.
The UK Government have recently announced all the cuts required in order to take this country away from the brink of bankruptcy. Part of these cutbacks include council cuts and impending job losses of hundreds and thousands. I believe that these cuts will result in local councils focusing on core activities – such as looking after the poor, vulnerable and needy – and peripheral activities such as leisure centres, youth centres, and promoting looking after the environment will become secondary.
As a direct result of these losses, ‘Activist Audiences’ will come together in order to fulfil these roles and these tribes will use social media to come together in order to ensure that these services are met and indeed, run by them.
It is inevitable that we will see crowd-sourced ownership of local community activities that can no longer be run by local councils. As believers in both social media and television it is down to us to be forward thinking and creative about developing uses for twitter, new mobile apps and indeed new television programmes that will facilitate our Activist audiences and indeed enable them to change our communities forever.
I currently spend my days managing social media accounts for some pretty decent UK brands. Alongside managing their twitter and facebook accounts I seek to deliver the best social media concepts that I can, in order to make their brands known.
Nevertheless, recently, I have been wondering where the big brand social media ideas are. There have been a handful of big social media ideas that have stood out over time including: Best Job in the world and it’s follow up Million Dollar Memo there have been the classic and viral Old Spice adverts which gained over 30million views on YouTube. Another successful advert was the t-mobile adverts, their flash-dance advert gaining 28million hits. But, where are the current big social media ideas?
If you know of any, please let me know. As someone who works in social media, with the aim of making brands famous online, I am constantly challenging myself to come up with the best and the biggest ideas and one of the ways of gaining these ideas, of finding inspiration, is by looking at what is currently out there. I am looking, but, I am not seeing.
If there are any particular brand viral / big social media ideas that are getting you going right now, please do let me know of them!
Google Offers is launching soon, launching in Portland first. I assume that it will take awhile for Google Offers to get to the UK but many people, around the world will be watching with interest.
This great little video has been released to promote the launch of Google Offers, however, I ma intrigued to know whether this service will be any different from the likes of Groupon and Living Social and, if so, whether the public at large with have deal-fatigue.
Time will tell whether the deal phenomenon is over or whether it will go from strength to strength, what do you think?
Over five years ago I launched a project in Fiji, called Tribewanted. The basic idea was to bring together people from around the world, online, in order to create and develop an eco-island on an uninhibited 200 acre island in Fiij. The result of Tribewanted are, humbly, far reaching.
There are people who have met, through tribewanted, and, subsequently, have got married. Babies have been born as a result. Some people have even moved to the other side of the world and, have barely returned. When I came up with the idea of Tribewanted I could never have imagined any of these things, but herein lies the power of potential.
I have recently come across another project, launched this week, by the serial entrepreneur, Ben Way, called ‘Arc Island‘. Launched on kickstarter with the intention of raising an initial $50,000 seed money, the aim is to build a floating island, the size of Manhattan, in what would be the biggest civil engineering project in history. Ben’s goal is that everything, will be built from scratch, and a new structure of civilization will be created.
When I first heard of this project I genuinely thought, ‘what is the point!’ It sounds like a load of cash and for what purpose? However, having thought about this over the course of a week, my thought process has changed. When I launched Tribewanted many people asked, ‘why?’. Some people didn’t get it and for awhile it was in the ‘weird’ section of the press until it became more mainstream and became a tv programme.
When Thomas Edison set about creating the electric lightbulb, was he fully aware of the effect that this would have, what it would become? Did Thomas Edison know that the lightbulb would light homes, streets, workplaces, providing lighting for cars, did he know that it would dramatically improve the lives of so many? Of course he didn’t. The only thing that Thomas Edison knew is that it could be done and he wanted to prove to himself, not necessarily, to anyone else, that it could be done. After 10,000 attempts later the lightbulb was invented and history was changed. Where would we be without the lightbulb? One of the most exciting and fascinating aspects of human life is that we have the power to create, to create whatever it is within our imagination to create.
At the beginning of the week I read about the Arc Island Project and thought, ‘why?’ and now I am thinking, ‘what if it never happened?’ Just like the lightbulb, could the existence of the Arc Island Project radically change our lives in ways that we cannot even conceive right now? Of course it could!
I believe in the Arc Island Project, not because of what I see, but, because of what I don’t see yet, but what I know is there, it’s untapped potential.
So, with this in mind I am contributing to the KickStart Fund and I hope enough people get on board in order to make this happen. Thomas Edison was one person, who made a dramatic contribution, that changed the way that human being’s live their lives. Imagine what a heap of mini Thomas Edison’s could do, by contributing a small amount of money, and making the Arc Island Project happen, and how future generations may be revolutionised by this very project.
Click on the video below to hear more about the Arc Island Project:
Please add your contribution to fund this project via Kickstarter.