as you’ve noticed, I did not write much this year on this blog. Not because I had any fatigue or that I was bored, because in our attention economy, there’s a key raw material: TIME.

So, French Ideas, a boutique digital agency, was born few weeks ago, in Silicon Roundabout, London. 3 main activities are implemented:

• social journey planning: as digital channels are very deeply changing the rules of influence, strategic planning and definition of personae have never been as important as now. Social journey planning requires strong capabilities in digital analysis, social media monitoring, and influencers’ mapping + knowledge in sociology, arts etc. We’ve already sold some projects for creative agencies: do not hesitate to pitch us!
• digital strategy: once you have a better idea of how your users think and which “moments of truth” rock, well, you need to establish a roadmap, both editorial and UX. That’s the trickiest point, that you need to shape with creatives in a wider extent: data analysts, CRM and so on
• early-stage marketing: you’re launching a brand? A festival? A start-up? Well, it’s not only Social Media but more general marketing. And we’re here to help…

We also have some publishing / fashion activities on Hit Bag.

It’s still new and our partners are extremely interesting people; it’s a brand new approach for me to set up some strategies with a wide diversity of talents; feel free to pitch us

In the meantime, I’ve tried to arrange all my previous posts on Pearltrees. You can check it here:

 

I had the chance to experience the Diamond Jubilee, and it’s probably one of the most amazing Social Media case studies since Obama’s campaign.

Some stats to better understand the scope of the phenomenon:

• 1 billion+ tweets according to The Telegraph and that’s more than the Kate & William wedding!
• a deep engagement according to Social Bakers, on diverse social spaces, from YouTube to Facebook, or again Twitter
  

But it’s not really the point. The point is that in any store, in any street, there was a deep commitment of a nation with this celebration. To be honnest, I’m a bit jealous of Commonwealth people today, because it was not about an identity which denies the other nations, but it was about an hyphenated identity which opens the gates. In Tesco supermarkets, you could have some fun with Union Jack flags and goodies. At Barclays, every customer could receive a special package. Why not a popular branding of the European Union then?

A very interesting popular fact can also be presented: Jubilee anthem “Sing” by Gary Barlow, is now #1 in diverse UK music charts.

So why did it work so well, apart the fact that British LOVE their Queen?

• the main official website gave clear meeting points and agenda some weeks before the crazy week-end: you knew what you could get and where you could go, at the very local place combined to the very moment you’re available
• there was a strong implication of media, in order to tell the story of both the core of the Diamond Jubilee (Queen Elizabeth II ) and the local narratives (what’s going on in the local pub?)
• a lot of stakeholders had a strong value proposal: business? holidays? meeting friends? reinsuring the British nation?
• people were empowered as they could organize “their” own Jubilee (BBQ at home? actions for nonprofits? )

Well done Majesty!

Most of the big digital bad buzz & crisis could now start on Pinterest: using brand images and transforming them to denunciate or attack them is already a classic tool that digital activists use.

But making it start via Pinterest could be extremely powerful: it could maximize the visual culture lure thanks to the “repin and linking” effect. As it’s not yet followed by search engines, it could impact citizens’ minds and remaining more silent on Google.

The main problem at this stage is that you cannot easily follow any “pinterest feed”, so it’s complicated to shape a crisis alert, for instance on a reader. But Ann Smarty gave us some clues on Mashable:she told us how to Track a website’s Content on Pinterest.

It can be great, as it’s already a first part of the problem: identifying brand detractors or promoters.

We’ve then hacked her demonstration, not to follow only our own contents, but to generate a feed to follow a potential risk. We’ve also used Feed 43, and we’ve done it for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). So here’s the way it works:

We’ve specified a query we’ve done on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/search/?q=IMF . We’ve left it pretty wide, as we wanted to get ALL contents about IMF.

You then need to copy/paste this code on Feed 43:

Item (repeatable) Search Pattern*: [?]
<a href=”http://pinterest.com/pin/{%}”>{*}
<p>{%}</p>{*}
<a href=”{%}” title=”{%}”>{*}

Item Title Template
{%2}

Item Link Template*:

http://pinterest.com/pin/{%1}

Item Content Template
Shared by <a href=”{%3}”>{%4}</a><p>

You now can add this feed to any monitoring tool, like Radian6 for instance. (and we’re sorry if I were IMF, I would definitely have a look right here)

• a service provider (plumber) called to inform me that he was on his way to my apartment: how come delivery guys for e-business never tell you when they’re in?
• I’ve been looking for hours a bloody serial number on a bloody heater: I still don’t understand how it’s possible that a missing number drives a whole value chain down, as the sales I had on the line could not tell me what to do. Non-sense.
• I gave tips to a pizza delivery guy who made his job very well. But I still can’t pay more a great service on many e-shops

It’s still marketing prehistory around here!

Check this out!

What’s interesting is that in France, in order to make a news BIG, you still need to wait 8pm, and our TV prime-time for news (we only have one time zone, remember ). But even before this potential smasher, a counterstrike occured: people who were present during the supposed quote were quickly interviewed, in order to refute & contradict UMP attempt. Media and social networks played their games, and one more time the trick was dismanttled

It’s an illustration of the main weakness of UMP: refutations now prune lies. Good news!

enjoy and happy new year!

• I had already forgotten 70% of what’s happened according to this tool; how will historians do to include our social statements in 50 years?
• US and French version are exactly the same: what does it mean in terms of diplomacy? Is it the end of local stories, is it the beginning of a “global” (thus not universal) history?

Anyway, we can be optimistic: history and curation are finally at stake; data become information. You can read more on memory @  Olivier’s.