Events: Facebook and #CommsChat
Next week is a busy week just a quick heads up on two events I’m involved with.
Social Collective meets Comms Chat aka #SoCol & #CommsChat
CommsChat is a regular online conversation (and what a great idea) set up by Adam Vincenzini and Emily Cagle. Monday’s conversation features the SoCol gang ahead of The Social Collective event taking place in September. Thanks to the lovely Shannon Boudjema for getting me involved in #SoCol. On Monday night we’re looking forward to giving you a preview of the #MAPmad theme we’re developing for the conference.
Hope to see you between 8 and 9pm on Monday night and all you have to do is get online. More details here.
Facebook for Business
I’ll admit, I’ve been slow in sorting out my Facebook smarts for business, preferring Twitter by far to the [sometimes annoying] social network. But the plain, unavoidable truth, is that Facebook is going to play a bigger and bigger part in our digital marketing futures so I’m rapidly trying to expand my knowledge.
Enter my lovely client Tempero who is hosting Facebook for Business next Thursday. Official Facebook peeps will be there plus advice and tools from some of the UK’s best companies working in this space.
Registration is here.
Cleaning up communications
Earlier in the year when I started #fixPR I wanted to stop the PR bashing and share solutions. We’re not all perfect and we don’t have a lot of time but, at the risk of sounding cheesy, if we all work together as an industry we could effect change.
Some people joined in and started debating the issues (and I thank them for their contributions) but since then I’ve noticed it’s still far more likely to see people taking a pop at each other and dragging the collective industry down. FFS!
Enter Claire Thompson and the successsfull thupr events. Claire has dedicated the next one to ‘Cleaning up Communications‘ which is a chance to “put away the bolly and look at some of the campaigns to help raise the game and have a collective think about what can be done in future…”
Claire has invited me to talk more about #fixPR (thank you) in good company with:
- Richard Ellis, PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association)
- Molly Flatt, 1000 Heads, offering the online perspective
- Adam Parker, Realwire, on An Inconvenient PR Truth
- Tim Phillips, freelance journalist, on Talk Normal
I’d love it if you could attend, not just because we’ve managed to get women speakers outnumbering men (wow, finally representative of the PR industry) but because I’d like it to be an event where we actually SAY something and not just sit around stroking our own egos.
I’m in a bit of a feisty phase at the moment - so if you know me at all it should be fun 
Please come along and add to the collective intelligence if you’re impacted by communications in any way; PR, writer, content producer, marketer, whatever…
[Image: DanBrady]
Defeated
After half a day, and about £60, my long-awaited plans to improve the look and feel of my blog have resulted in, well, I’ve actually made it worse.
It’s not that I underestimated the complexities of installing wordpress and messing about with it but after having conquered the free version over here http://grapevineconsulting.wordpress.com/ well over a year ago I wanted to move things on a bit.
I could’ve paid someone but find it’s useful to try this this stuff at least once so I understand it a little better if it crops up in client work. Well, I can admit when I’m beat. Please bear with this ugly looking site until I can find someone to rescue me.
Technology and the new industrial revolution
The FT’s reported on new research by HSBC on how business is expected to develop over the next 20 years. New technologies and working practices are, of course, at the heart of it. I was interviewed for the report and am profiled as
a “referral economist”, a new breed of business matchmaker who profits from connecting people
That alone sounds a little shady but in context it’s about using your network to connect with business opportunities and connect other businesses to eachother.
A lot of people think “networking” is ego-driven, greasy sales types at events handing out business cards and trying to get closest to the most important person in the room. That’s just a misconception like the idea that Twitter is just ego-centric, over-sharing of the minutae of life.
Networks (and social technologies like Twitter) are about connecting people. The social media revolution has already massively impacted industry by connecting brands and customers. The next phase is when businesses connect to eachother. Wikinomics fascinates me by exploring that idea, and the concept of Amplified 09 goes further looking at what happens when we connect across industries.
I know it’s cheesy but we really do live in exciting times.
Social Media Heroes and Villains
Love Facebook? Hate Facebook?
Love Twitter? Hate Twitter?
Too confused to know? Well apparently even ’leading online opinion formers’ aren’t quite sure. Their thoughts on everything from what they love and hate, to what they wish they’d known a year ago, have all been included in a new ShinyRed report Social Media and Brands 2009. You can download a copy of the report and decide for yourself.
Hghlights of the report? Well, um, a certain little grapevine *ahem* was included alongside big bananas like Charlene Li, Antony Mayfield and Neil McIntosh. Thanks for allowing me to participate guys, loving your work!
Other contributors:
Frukt sessions 001: The Meaning of Value in a free World
Today I’m attending the very first FRUKT Sessions 001. Don’t know who FRUKT is? Back at the start of the year I saw them at Iris’ Under The Influence event. They’re a music and strategy agency working with some really exciting brands and projects.
Today’s event brings together thought leaders who’ve played a part in shaping ‘Generation Free’ and how it impacts on business. Anthony Ackenhoff (FRUKT) will be kicking things off and my former client at Shiny Red Steve Purdham (We7) will be joining in on a panel later.
The most important question they’ll be trying to answer today is:
How do you connect with an audience whose most precious commodity is their own attention?
I’ll take some notes and post back here.
About:
I'm Darika Ahrens and I help brands develop marketing strategies for Social Media.
My background is in Public Relations for companies like Orange, Microsoft, Philips, HTC, Yell.com, and Estee Lauder. I've worked with and trained some of the UK's top agencies.
In 2009 the Financial Times referred to me as "a new breed of business matchmaker" due to my network of contacts and way I work creating bespoke teams to deliver projects.