Dan Leach

Celebrating social brand communications and creativity
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Consumer brand specialist with a creative spark and a healthy interest in social media.

Any views expressed on this site are my own unless stated.

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International Trends in Social Commerce

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Posted 13 hours ago

Twitter is costing you money!

How much is tweeting costing your business?

If your answer is nothing then either you're not on Twitter or you're not using it in the right way.

If it's the former then the cost to you could be one of lost sales, damaged reputation and lack of customer engagement. A cost that should be looked at immediately.

If your brand is on Twitter and assuming you don't just have a bot that spews out spam 24/7, you either tweet on behalf of your company or have someone else doing it for you. And, as the old adage goes - "Time is money".

Whether you spend 7 minutes a month or 7 hours a day on Twitter, you are investing time that could be spent elsewhere. Even at 7 minutes a week, that's nearly an entire day each year you are spending tweeting. How much is a day of your time worth?

I'm not saying get off Twitter - as I mention above, that can be more costly than the time you spend on it. But, instead work out how much time and therefore money you are spending on Twitter and then look at whether you are getting the return you deserve. If you're not then how can you change your behaviour to get a decent ROI? 

The change isn't just a case of more or less time, it could be a case of being more focused, tweeting more effectively or engaging more frequently with the community.

The point is, at any level Twitter is costing you and your business money so make sure you approach it in the same way you would anything else that took money off your bottom line. Have a strategy, demand a return (financial or otherwise) and constantly re-evaluate.

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Posted 6 days ago

8 Recycled Bottles = 1 football shirt

I love this. Not only for Nike's "Considered Design" approach but by taking that approach all the way through to the way they present the product.

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Posted 6 days ago

The last 7 days - 1st March 2009

As a regular feature I wanted to highlight the best posts I have found in the past 7 days from the 100 or so publications I read. Enjoy...

If I'm missing some gold then please let me know!

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Posted 7 days ago

Social Media Revolution

As I tend to post all the pro-social media videos on this blog it's only right that I post a response. Brilliant parody from the Twankers, they kind of have a point...

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Posted 7 days ago

The Digital Cup Final

I tend to avoid writing about clients at Hill & Knowlton, even those I don't work on, but the work the team is carrying out for this weekend's Carling Cup final deserves to be shared.

At the final on Sunday, Carling is giving up a third of its pitch-side advertising boards and letting fans post their own messages of support. There will also be banners in and around Wembley featuring the top 100 messages sent in. And, if you needed any more encouragement to take part - for every banner or message submitted, £1 will be donated to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK.

I'm a massive fan of taking an online property offline, and this is a great example of a brand empowering their customers and literally giving them a voice.

Brands need to start looking at bought media not as a space just to talk but a space to share with their customers, employees and fans. 

Kudos to Carling and of course the team at H&K for being bold and doing things a little differently.

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Posted 10 days ago

Social media in 2 minutes

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Posted 12 days ago

Parisian Love

The way you tell a story is just as important as the story itself. Google pull this off brilliantly...

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Posted 12 days ago

UK News Coverage: Haiti vs. Snow vs. Bullying

What's wrong with this picture....

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Posted 13 days ago

6 creative uses of YouTube

YouTube videos can be so much more than wedding dances and Susan Boyle. Here are six examples of how people are being creative with online videos:

  1. ThruYOU: An online video music project launched in 2009 by Israeli, Ophir Kutiel. He takes random YouTube videos, edits and combines them to create original songs.His first creation, "Mother of All Funk Chords" has attracted nearly 1 million views to date
  2.  The Subs' Videocast: Belgian band, The Subs, have taken a novel approach to using annotations in their videos. Viewers are encourage to check out other YouTube videos throughout their videocast - if you don't fancy clicking, just keep watching.
  3. In Bb 2.0: A collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls. Users can play select videos and adjust the volume to create original tracks.
  4. BooneOakley.com: Well known but still worth a mention. The advertising agency turned the concept of having a website on its head and decided their home should be a YouTube video.
  5. YouTube Street Fighter: Perhaps not the greatest game you'll ever play but the novel approach to a fighting game has attracted nearly 7 million viewers / players.
  6. The Mixable Dancer: Again using annotations, Henrik Leichsenring lets viewers mix beats and make a rabbit (?) throw some shapes on the dancefloor.
I would love to hear about any other examples out there. Leave a comment and let me know.

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Posted 13 days ago