Blog

This has been my first experience of social media week, and quite frankly it's left me on a real high. The sense of community, openness and willingness to share were what struck me most of all.  I know that will sound like a naive observation to disciples of the open source and free software movements who come together at events such as the BarCamps of pioneer Tim O'Reilly and the whole host of similar pow-wows it has spawned globally. This willingness to share without the shackles of formal rules also underpins hacking culture whose more positive elements brands are harnessing to promote themselves. It's a growing trend and its certainly making its presence felt within our industry even if the altruistic giving-away of knowledge and insight for the greater good  still raises eye brows, as Campaign's Claire Beale commented in a recent leader.
 
Social media agencies are of course one of the natural channels by which this ethos of sharing is penetrating the marketing communications industry more broadly. It's an integral part of their DNA given the nature of the work they do. The rest of us who are not social media specialists also realise there's a whole new ball game we have to get our heads around super fast. This proves to be a great leveller for the social media 'unsavvy' majority who realise they are not alone and that there's nothing to be gained and everything to be lost from trying to pretend they're on top of things and to jealously guard what learnings they might pick up. In other words, social media acts as a great leveller bringing together people who are not afraid to say they don't know the answer, but who are hungrily learning whatever they can, how they can.
 
And everyone I met during Social Media Week was hungry for knowledge and keen to learn. They were humble too, even those who were clearly experts in their fields. There was none of the cautious eyeing up of the other people in the room. Everyone was warm, friendly and inclusive. There was a shared motivation and goal.
 
We also laughed a lot, always a good thing; much of mine was done courtesy of  http://www.unrulymedia.com/ who hosted The First Ever Unruly Social Video Film Festival showing the top Youtube videos from 2011 allowing us to vote during the show.

 
Since I attended the events I've already linked in with around 100 new people. It's brought a lot of people closer together and I like to think it's helping to build a broader community within our sector where sharing and openness will truly be the guiding principles.