Hugh Mcleod is a PR/marketing blogger who I think has been covering some really insightful stuff recently. PR and marketing types, if anything like me, are courtesy of Hugh getting down to the nitty gritty of the marketing theory behind social networks - what makes some work and some not - looking at how to apply it to other brands, products and concepts (and getting some of his wit along the way). Hugh's got a blog that, after years of passively subcribing to, I now have lodged firmly in my must-reads folder.
So, recently Hugh's been talking about what we can learn from marketing by looking at some of the discussions that have been taking place at recent events on social objects and marrying that up with some early 20th Century insight from a dude called Malinowski, the father of modern anthropology.
So Hugh's got me on to Malinowski now. Looking at how sociability and reciprocity can make a brand and a product PR gold dust, it's interesting to understand the principles that people like Bronislaw Malinowski and Jaiku's Jyri Engstrom dissect.
The Guardian's Kevin Anderson has also written up his views on social objects and on the thoughts of Jaiku Founder, Jyri Engstrom. Kevin says that there's something about some social media sites like Flickr that tells you they're going to be around for years to come, and that's all down to this principle of social objects. Worth remembering when looking at which social networks to spend your time on.
I managed to use the iSight camera on my macbook pro to grab a video of the presentation Jyri gave at the NMK forum a few weeks ago. It's well worth a watch - I was really impressed by the theory behind what he's trying to do with Jaiku as well as his analysis of the other social networking and sharing sites out there: http://www.cybersoc.com/2007/06/nmkforum2007_vi.html
Posted by: Robin Hamman | July 03, 2007 at 02:48 PM