I came across this blog today from a fellow worker in the world of social media and i think its a neat idea to share around.  Quite simply, he starts each blog with an estimated time for how long it will take you to read:

Simple but effective.  Setting the expectation and required commitment from the start is good practice as most of us will suffer from online content fatigue after the 1,335 minutes spent online each month

With polling day just one day away it is time for the final 3 of the West. But don’t fret, we will be keeping a close eye on Social Media in politics over the coming weeks and months.

3 of the West(minster)

The Youtube and Facebook Digital Debate

The would be Prime Ministers have been engaging in TV debates for the past few weeks and now it is time for social media to have its turn. Some really great answers from the 3 leaders in bite sized Youtube chunks.

Lol Cleggz

This election we have seen our fair share of mashups, memes and spoofs. Here is another one for Nick Clegg based on the popular lolcatz meme.

Kitchen Domestic Policy

IKEA has had another crack at this online media malarky. They are joining in on the election fun with their themed kitchens. Not the most exciting subject but it raised a couple of chuckles around the office.

3 of the rest

HOW TO: Cultivate Your Brand’s Super Users

Getting behind people who are already advocating to you is vitally important. You don’t need to convince them how great you and your product are, they are already there. Just give them the tools and the platforms to really help you promote your brand.

Election 2010 Made in Taiwan: ‘Bigotgate’

I wish all news was made in Taiwan.

Instant Fun

A huge array of colourful shiny buttons that make all sorts of sounds when you press them! What could be more entertaining.

Here are some of the Qubites favourite tweets from the past week. Also wish us luck for tonights BAHBA’s, we are up for ‘most awesome use of digital media‘

@Glennw’s favourite tweets

@empika: honey badger: http://is.gd/40ha1

@tomkiss RT @aegirthor And the link for ‘yobs get beaten up by cross dressers who turn out to be cage fighters’ is: http://tr.im/AXqs

@MrTomasz’s favourite tweets

@sophiehenson: nothing like a bit of shameless self-promotion! New website up and running: http://www.sophiehenson.com/ WOOP.

@divydovy: High Quality African Journalism http://post.ly/7UCV

@wearesocial: Social media: you need to pay to play http://bit.ly/3OkGEJ

@WishfulBlinking: Back and having lunch. Thai sweet chilli sensations crisps! D: Its like there are ninjas having a party on my tongue!

@Nijay’s favourite tweets

@nickkuh: The myth of the page fold: evidence from user testing – http://bit.ly/D6Kum (via @swingpants)

@brightonargus: Voodoo painting “killed my husband” Brighton widow claims http://bit.ly/uO9dM

@willsh Tories; “Vote for us” People; “Why, what will you do?” Tories; “We can’t tell you that, you haven’t voted for us yet…” (hehe)

@katiehoughton http://twitpic.com/jxy4j – Qube intern doubles as notice board at sussex intern training. <- we taught him that

@Seelpod’s Favourite tweet

@mrtomasz Does anybody have children in East Sussex between 13 – 19 who are interested in art/design/illustration? Get in touch

The Qubite’s favourite tweets from the last week bought to you in glorious technicolour (sort of).

@Glennw’s favourite tweets

@Kerb: Amazon customers who bought this aluminium baseball bat also bought.. http://bit.ly/QOBoa

@emma_beecher amazing shoes by @jonburgerman http://tinyurl.com/kpa7k5 i effing love his work

@MrTomasz’s favourite tweets

killer_bunnie: H from steps has died http://twitpic.com/h6b11

@rah_rah: a custom-made cuss is the latest prize donated to @brightwest by the awesome @stephenfry!

@MonaWalsh favourite tweets

@BrightonHoveCC: Balanced & independent blog on our Social Media Officer post.http://bit.ly/Kfee8

@Nijays favourite tweets

@davelaw00: Social media mistake no.5643 Don’t tweet about defacing university property http://is.gd/31Mj2 (LOL)

@euzie: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO , Courteney Love might be moving to Hove, ffs

@JustinSMV: 5 Straw Man Arguments to Take a Pass on Social Media http://bit.ly/3lsODy

@rapella {reassuring} So we’re all a bunch of mutants http://bit.ly/a1s6S (I love this, it’s made me very happy).

Some of you may remember a blog I wrote back in March about an iPhone app adidas originals were releasing, however most of you will not, so you can check that out here.

adidas made a very clear statement when in 1996 they segmented their brand into 3. adidas performance (sportswear) adidas style (expensive trendy clothing) and adidas originals (streetwear for the cool kids.)

adidas originals has really taken off in the past 2 years, due in part to a huge global marketing campaign of which the iPhone app was a part. adidas have since turned what was once a low volume shifting niche brand, into a global force which the original audience still see as a “their” brand despite it’s size and reach.

It now seems that Nike are looking to cash in on the action, by releasing an eerily similar app, which you can read about on New Media Age here, to celebrate the re-issue of one of their most iconic trainers. The application focuses on building an online community with user generated content aimed specifically at the hip hop/street wear/b-boy consumer.

Nike have always had certain lines of trainers that were aimed at a more street audience, however they have never made the move into rigidly segmenting their street-wear products under an over arching brand by renaming it like adidas did with originals.

This made me wonder how segmented branded communities online need to be. Will the fact that the community is labeled just “Nike” mean that the application (which is a guide to local clubs, clothes shops and graffiti) attracts people interested in running or golf out of confusion? The answer is probably not.

Branded communities, the ones that work at least, tend to seek out their audiences with the content they provide. The best communities will offer their audience content, which is of genuine interest to them, and hopefully over time this will filter out everyone but your target audience. This isn’t ideal if you are targeting 20 – 60 year old males who shave, but if you are trying to reach 15 – 30 year olds who are into street wear, urban culture and graffiti it is great.

Nike very much get the fact that branded communities should be about a concept, and don’t need to focus around a brand, as they have demonstrated with Nike+. Instead of trying to hard sell all the time, try building a community around something your audience has an interest in and finds genuinly useful. You’ll probably find that you gain a much more captive audience who are more willing to get involved in conversations with you.

It’s crazy to think that I have been working at Qube for almost a year now. It seems like last week I went for an interview with Nigel and Andy and started babbling on about space camp (for reasons I still can’t fully explain.)

Well time does fly when you’re having fun, and in a month or so it will be someone elses turn to go through the inquisition, so to everyone who is applying for the Sussex Internship Programme, don’t worry, we won’t bite. Just make sure you’re brilliant every day and you will get on just fine.

But seriously, the scheme is a great way to get into the digital industries in Sussex (Glenn and I both got full time jobs out of it) and you learn loads of useful skills. You even get a lovely certificate tied up with a green ribbon at the end.

So if you think you want to work for Qube, or another digital media company in Sussex, take a look at the Sussex Internship programme here. You only have until Friday to apply, so hurry!

If you want any advice about the application process, we would be more than happy to help with any questions. So drop me or Glenn an email. And good luck!

Glenn is working very hard on some important statistics things right now, so your round up of Qube Media’s favourite tweets shall be compiled by me this week. I promise to do my best. So, here we go I guess…

@mrtomasz‘s favourites

@MrsPBoutique: Kagool rage. Get back in your bag you golden freak!

@abigvictory: When Facebook recommends your ex husband as a friend, it’s time to rethink this whole social media thing. Or use a fake name.

@nonlinearDog: Man, I have a serious case of the yawns. Hope I don’t have to be put to sleep. Get it?! Ha! I made that up myself! LOL! I know, morbid.

@glennw‘s favourites

@stephentotilo: Young gamer on subway asks friends: “Remember that crate?” Other kids can’t. Game developers, can’t you give kids better stuff to discuss

@rossbreadmore: Thief leaves hand-written thank-you note, complete with emoticon! http://bit.ly/aZVbZ

@infobunny: Wow! @Geeklawyer‘s account suspended! http://twitpic.com/agdpu Save @Geeklawyer!

@monawalsh‘s favourite

@timmisson: Skinny jeans look rubbish #everyoneelseiswrong

@nijay‘s favourites

@MarkClayson: The iPod, As We Know It, Is Dying http://ff.im/-5xnWf

@kaysexton: Why do I find this both amusing and disturbing? Pagan police … http://bit.ly/XYomr

@fionajane‘s favourite

@benkunz: Useful survey thank you! (Razorfish social media study http://tinyurl.com/nvgg3o)

I woke up the other morning, to Radio 4 as usual, to catch the end of a story about a nice sounding Canadian chap who had flown on United Airlines and had his guitar damaged in the process.

I didn’t hear the whole story, but heard a clip of a song that had apparently received 3.5m views on Youtube so far.

I came into work and found a few links on twitter to articles about the man (Dave Carroll), who had received such a bad customer service experience that he had written 3 songs about it, the most popular being “United breaks guitars.”

It made me think about the power of social media and how some enourmous brands just don’t see the value of it. Dave Carroll saw the value of it, his song has 3.5m hits on youtube, and he will probably launch a successful music career off the back of it.

Taylor, the guitar company who made the guitar that Dave was singing about, also saw the value of social media. They posted a video response to Dave’s stating their support for him and also offering other travelers advice on travelling with their guitars.

But unfortunately United had not realised the value of social media. How brilliant would it have been though if they had posted a video response song apologising to Dave? I personally think it would have turned a negative PR situation into a very positive one.

It’s easy to scoff at United airlines, but it is important to remember that is much more difficult to change culture when a company is so big. It’s easy to use social media when you’re a 4 person band, or even a 400 person hand made guitar manufacturer, but things are different when you have 50,000 members of staff.

That isn’t to say however that it can’t be done, and there are plenty of large companies doing it. If you think you should be doing it too, here are 5 important things to remember when changing your culture to encourage social media.

• Start sooner rather than later – Chances are social media isn’t going away. The sooner you start to incorporate it into your business, the sooner your culture will start to change and make it easier in the long run.

• Have a social media policy – Have a clearly defined policy of what social media you will use, and how your company will be represented on each platform. Will you have a company twitter account or multiple staff accounts? These are questions that need to be answered by you.

• Let your staff know where the line is – So you decided to unblock twitter and Facebook but now your staff spend all their time talking to their friends. Remind them that although you encourage the use of social networks during office hours, they still have other work.

• Encourage staff to get involved in conversations – If your staff are spending time on social networks anyway, encourage them to get involved in conversations about your company. Social media is about 2 way communication. So why not join in the conversation?

• Remember everyone can see you – Social media is about being open. Don’t give yourself positive reviews, don’t pretend to be an amazingly happy customer and don’t think you’re too clever to get caught out doing these things. You’re not.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hxX_Q5CnaA]

There is lots of news around today about Amazon’s purchase of Zappos for $928m, which was announced on YouTube Many seem astounded at this price tag but for me it finally demonstrates to the world how valuable an investment and commitment in social media really is.

Zappos is often touted as story of social media success but its not just their use of twitter or having a blog that drives their greatness, as Jeff Bezos puts it; its the “customer obsession and their unique culture” that drives his admiration (and now purchase) of this company.

Zappos’s social media success is not due to their technical brilliance or their broad social media presence, its because such tools are complemented, and facilitated, by their strong ‘social’ culture.  They get that social media is more than just a few new tools or tactics, its a complete approach to doing business that needs commitment right from the top.    A sociable culture puts emphasis on building strong long term relationships; having an open dialogue, listening to feedback, sharing this knowledge and innovating around insight.  The financial reward is loyal customers that love you and good old word of mouth. ‘Simples’.

Being a sociable brand is more than just having a social media presence, its about developing a sociable culture and this places ‘social media’ high on any companies strategic agenda.   I think we need to invest as much time and effort integrating social practices into an organisation and culture as we do to marketing campaigns.  The investment is worth it, it would seem – being a sociable brand can enhance your overall brand value and your bottom line.

As Seth Godin puts it, its these things “that matter” to businesses today.

Does it matter to you?

I went to a twitter event (“So what is this twitter thing anyway”) the other evening hosted by Rob Sheperd from Press Dispensary.

When I got there I must admit I was feeling a bit negative about the whole thing, partly because I didn’t think I could learn anything from it but mainly because I had a splitting headache thanks to my lovely wisdom teeth poking through my gums.

Anyway, as soon as I got in the room, my headache went away, and I got to listen to some really interesting points from people who wanted to use twitter for their businesses but just didn’t know how.

It was really refreshing to hear the comments and questions about using social media for marketing, from people who don’t work in social media marketing. It has made me think a great deal more about what client’s main fears are when they make the big leap into the social space, and this can only be a good thing.

I fear that social media people sometimes get too wrapped up in the bubble and only want to talk to other social media people, which isn’t really the point of what we do. Events like this go a great way to encouraging non techy people to get involved and give it a try, and I think the more people involved the better. Thanks Rob.