Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Borders and Walls are Man-Made

This post was originally going to be something completely different.

It was either going to be a follow-up to my Twitter mobile app post, or a look at social media relationships and the connection to message and content. Both these will come – but for now, I want to talk about something that happened today.

I was on a call earlier with Lotay Yang, founder of Black Card Circle and Black Card Circle Foundation. Lotay is an incredibly inspiring individual who is using his vast reach and hugely successful network to effect social change.

The reason for the call was to discuss how Black Card Circle and 12for12k can work together toward social good, and when I came away from it I was buzzing. So many great things, so many great ideas, and all toward making the world a better place.

During the call, Lotay responded to something I said about the global community by saying, “Borders and walls are man-made.”

Think about that for a minute.

Borders and walls are man-made.

This really resonated in so many ways. Obviously we were discussing charity but think how that simple phrase can impact your personal and professional life.

You might be on the start of your social media journey at the minute, either personally or for your business. You might be about to start a new business, or have an existing one that you’re unsure of where to go next. You might even be thinking of something as simple as starting a blog and don’t know how to proceed and start writing.

Yet these examples and others like them are just walls and borders made by us.

Our fear is the cement mix for the bricks that build the walls. Our vision (or lack of) is what makes these borders either thick or transparent. Our minds and ambition are the tools that will either build the walls higher and make the borders wider, or tear them down altogether.

Borders and walls don’t need to last forever. Look at the Berlin Wall and how that came tumbling down in spectacular style, offering freedom to those that had felt trapped behind it. You can tear down your own Berlin Wall.

The social media journey you’re starting out on? Embrace it. Open up; listen; converse; learn; engage; did I say listen already? There are numerous people – good people – just ready to help. Let them.

The business you’re unsure of, both new and existing? Evaluate and re-evaluate. Speak to mentors; peers; advisors; listen to what they have to say and adapt to your needs.

The blog you want to start but don’t know where or how to? Take it little steps at a time. Join Posterous or Tumblr and write mini thoughts or tips or whatever’s going through your mind. You can even email posts in for the Posterous and Tumblr teams to publish for you if you don’t have time to do it yourself. Get comfortable writing regularly then when you’re ready, move up a gear.

We face obstacles every waking minute of our lives. We have to overcome cynicism. We have to overcome people trying to hold us back. We have to overcome natural and man-made disasters. We have to remember to breathe.

But obstacles are just borders and walls. And borders and walls are man-made.

So. What borders and walls do you have and are you ready to start pulling them down?

photo credit: Valentina Photography

Why Twitter Mobile Apps Don’t Interest Me

I’m a mobile Luddite. I don’t have an iPhone or Blackberry (although I do like the look of the new Palm Pre) and to be honest I’m not too bothered about having a smart phone at the minute.

Now you might say that for someone that is involved in the online world as I am, not having an iPhone or similar makes me some kind of heathen. And maybe it does.

But here’s the thing.

I’m a people person. I like to know people. I like to connect people. My aim is to meet and introduce as many folks as I can, and help make one big interconnected community that can call on each other when needed.

This could be for advice, knowledge, help, charity or anything else. The more quality people I know and can put in touch with each other, the better.

For me to be an effective people person and an effective connector, I need (and want) to know a person. What makes them tick. What makes them laugh. What upsets them. What motivates them.

Basically, I want to know why that person is who they are. Then I can help put them in touch with like-minded souls.

But to do this, I need to offer my full attention to that person at that given time. And maybe it’s just me, but Twitter mobile apps are a major stumbling block to this aim.

The amount of times I’ve been out with friends or connections and they’ve been tweeting merrily away on their smart phones is scary.

Do we really need to be so technologically connected all the time? This is meant to be downtime. Drinks and a meal with friends. Can’t that super important tweet wait until you get home?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m as big a Twitter user as the next tweeter. But tweeting while in company – isn’t that kind of rude and anti-social media?

But what about conferences and events, you might ask? I have a laptop if I want to live tweet and I have a web-enabled cell phone for my email. So let’s flip that around – aren’t you at conferences and events to learn from people as opposed to hearing the odd snippet of info between live tweeting?

I’m not denying that Twitter mobile apps are useful, to some more than others. But aren’t people more important than the tools? Or am I just being idealistic in a technological world?

photo credit: ekai

How Long Do You Let Your Brand?s Reputation Suffer?

You’re a public relations professional or agency. How are you monitoring your brand and those of your clients?

You are actually monitoring, right?

I ask on the back of an interesting story regarding Michigan-based PR firm Tanner Friedman and their current lawsuit regarding a fake Twitter account.

Back in January this year, an account was set up on Twitter that used the name @TannerFriedman. For anyone seeing the tweets from the account, you might expect them to be the latest company or client news from the PR firm.

Not so.

The account had nothing to do with Tanner Friedman. Instead, it was set up by someone who then went on to post a defamatory tweet as the account’s introduction to Twitter, and then subsequently posted negative tweets about the firm.

To keep things interesting, though, the account also took tweets from the Twitter accounts of actual Tanner Friedman employees to make it look more authentic.

Jump forward to March 27, when Tanner Friedman complained to Twitter about the fake account.

That’s more than two months later.

Despite the fake Twitter account posting about the company. Despite the fact that the tweets are said to be damaging and embarrassing to Tanner Friedman. Despite the company being active on Twitter through its employees.

So why so long? Weren’t Tanner Friedman monitoring their own brand as well as that of their clients?

There are numerous tools available to track what’s being said about you. Some are free, like Social Mention, Google Alerts, Filtrbox, BackType and, of course, Twitter.

There are also premium solutions available as well, like Radian6, Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Cision Social Media and Trackur to name just a few.

So it’s not as if the tools aren’t there.

Indeed, Tanner Friedman’s own blurb describes them as, “…an innovative and imaginative communication resource…” with a “…commitment to new technologies…”.

So what happened?

I sent an email to Tanner Friedman to ask their views on the current situation. Kudos to Don Tanner, who was pretty prompt at getting back to me. Here’s what Don had to say about the time lapse:

“We dealt with the problem once we became aware that there was a problem. The problematic tweets did not occur immediately. Once they did and we became aware of them, we acted immediately.”

With regards not having the Tanner Friedman account registered to the company to start with:

“We each had our own Twitter pages along with our own Facebook and Tanner Friedman Facebook pages. Further, as with most professional service firms, we tend to put our clients first. Further (and maybe it is a Midwest thing), Twitter has only emerged here in the past few months.”

It’s never pleasant to be at the centre of negativity when you’re looking after a PR client. It’s even less so when the negativity is about you. Yet one thing you can’t do is let it run.

While it’s clear that Tanner Friedman acted once aware of the account, there still seems to be a time lapse between the first tweet and the complaint, considering more tweets were sent throughout February and March.This is where the obvious problem lies.

Two hours can be a long time when it comes to bad news spreading on social media; two months is a lifetime in comparison.

What this lawsuit shows is the need to be proactive at every turn when it comes to hearing the conversations that are taking place as well as securing your brand early on. Otherwise, you might just find that someone’s been proactive for you.

Of course, Twitter needs to take responsibility as well. Account authorization has to be stepped up (which they are currently looking at) and their customer service currently leaves a lot to be desired. If they really want to take the service to the next level, they need to actually offer a service that looks after its users.

How about you? Do you know what’s being said about you online? How do you monitor the conversations and what advice do you give your clients and employees?

photo credit: Dude Crush

Why Zoompass Could be a Marketer’s Dream

This weekend, Zoompass? was launched in Canada by the three leading Canadian wireless operators – Rogers, Bell and Telus. It’s a money transfer system for mobile phones – yet it could also become a marketer’s dream.

What is Zoompass?

A collaboration between the three leading wireless networks in Canada, Zoompass is a new application that you can either download to your mobile phone or use via both mobile and standard web.

What it then allows you to do is to receive or send money, as well as make purchases, check your balance and more. This is all carried out by the Zoompass network, a secure online transfer system using PIN password access. Because the system uses both Java and Wi-Fi technology, any web-enabled mobile phone can use the system.

So now friends can send each other money, split bills at restaurants, pay for sports events, etc, and it’s easier to split the payments. It uses your existing contacts information to select users easily. And because Zoompass uses its own money account to store funds, nothing need come from your own bank account.

As well as the mobile system, Zoompass also offers a pre-paid Mastercard? that users can top up and use to make purchases in-store and online.

So Why Should Marketers Care About Zoompass?

Because Zoompass is a collaboration between Telus, Rogers and Bell, this means that users of their subsidiary networks can also use the service. These include Fido, PC Mobile and Solo – or, in numbers, more than 21 million users.

21 million.

Imagine a partnership between your business and Zoompass that allows users to opt-in to a recommendation service.

So they’re using their mobile app to browse electronic stores in the area to buy an iPod from, and your sponsored flyer pops up. Or you’re a cab company that’s an official Zoompass partner and not only is your number the first up for cabs in a particular location, you also accept Zoompass payment via your on-cab register.

Another option could be that anyone using the Mastercard option receives loyalty points from Zoompass-enabled retailers, keeping the customer coming back to you and Zoompass offering you (the vendor) priority.

It’s obviously early days for the application but the potential could be huge. And with the pre-paid Mastercard offering international use of Zoompass, it’s not just restricted to Canada – more good news for marketers.

Check out the Zoompass website and blog for more information.