in January this year Facebook announced
a change in their newsfeed and it sent
people into panic Facebook were moving
the goalposts again and people weren’t
taking it all that well the people who
had changed the face of how we market
our businesses and how we promote
ourselves were making it harder again
after kicking marketing really rather
hard and quite repetitively they were
doing it again
people were really cross they huffed and
they puffed but they didn’t blow that
over two billion strong Facebook house
down but I kind of felt that you’re
missing the point a little because the
changes weren’t there to upset people in
fact they were there to make the user
experience on Facebook so much better
the whole point was to create more
meaningful and genuine reactions isn’t
that what we should all be looking for
anyway the Facebook post that announced
this change said word for word I’m
changing the goal of our product teams
from focusing on helping you to find
relevant content online to helping you
have more meaningful interactions there
were many a hyped up blog post about how
could how you could cheat the algorithm
and how you could do this do that how
people were leaving Facebook and I did
also see the irony that a lot of these
were put on the very platform they were
moaning about and it was it was a
problem it was going to sting businesses
but only businesses that weren’t doing
it properly to start with or who weren’t
happy and willing to adapt personally I
was really pleased to see the back of
these clickbait and engagement based
posts because whenever there’s someone
who deserves a puppy or a gin or a
kitten are my name’s never there I think
it’s one of the perks maybe of having a
rather odd name
but although I’ve talked about Facebook
here it’s not just Facebook it’s all
social media platforms and the algorithm
does get a bit of a hard time on these
the thing is that we can’t control the
algorithm so there’s no point in
whinging about it all we can do is see
what it was us to achieve
make it work for us in the best way that
we possibly can and I think that is what
we should all be aiming for so when all
these changes were announced I didn’t
panic I mean call me stupid and ha be
honest I’ve been called a lot worse than
that but why why panic because you can’t
change it I know it did mean with the
creativity and collaboration which are
two things that I have seen work time
and again and fused with my own clients
for literally years we’re going to come
to the fore and I thought that was kind
of exciting it was also going to allow
us to have more genuine interactions and
and to get this following it and put
across our authenticity which is what it
should all be about anyway
it was going to help enhance the lives
of the people who we have the pleasure
of dealing with and those who follow us
and that’s I think really what we should
be aiming for anyway so if we can start
with collaborations if we can so I think
I blame the media largely but we’re
taught from quite a young age that it’s
possible to achieve success on the road
and in fact there are lots of people out
there who have achieved great things all
on their own because they’re brilliant
and supreme powerful but it’s not really
the case if you scratch the surface a
little if you think of people like
Richard Branson for example you think of
him as the face of Bergeon and indeed he
is a huge part of the business but he’s
not the whole business and actually a
blog on his own platform in October 2016
very much dissuaded this idea it’s
definitely a team effort
it’s not him acting on his own the great
thing is that other people as well as
ourselves hold the answer to our success
and I think that’s that’s really
exciting as well in a time when
isolation is something that people talk
about an awful lot more we now have the
tarte chance to turn this on its head
and make it not such a big deal for any
of us we have the power to change our
own lives and other people too in the
words of Helen Keller alone we can do so
little but together we can do so much so
let’s think about a really good social
media brand and brothers absolutely
on there so you’ll probably see they
have a nice tribe of fans and followers
and doesn’t necessarily the number isn’t
the big deal here but they have a
engaged group of people who like the
content they’re putting out there the
content will be good it’ll be quality
video it’ll be well-thought-out captions
it’ll be great graphics and images but
the thing is that these pick the
businesses aren’t just shouting about
what they’re doing and then going off
they’re engaging they’re being sociable
you’ll see a two and a fro and a chat
and all of this is what makes it really
really special
this will make customers not just feel
like they want to buy from the brand but
also that they have some kind of loyalty
towards the brand that they want to
engage with them they want to help them
on their journey now think about all
these brilliant things I’ve talked about
and let’s imagine that somebody who
makes pickles for example has this so
that he has a tribe of really excited
fans and followers who completely love
his pickle based amusements and
obviously his product and now what if he
found another business to work with that
would bring out the best in his pickle
but also would appeal to his pickle fans
let’s say a cheese maker for example so
you have a cheese maker who also has
this tribe of fans who love his cheesy
humor and his lovely lovely products and
what if they work together what would it
look like because they’re not competing
they don’t conflict tall far from it
they complement each other so what would
it look like in terms of how we see it
it would be sharing an audience it will
be introducing each other to each
other’s products it will be supporting
the customers of each to help improve
and enhance their experience with
something that we know they already like
and what could that actually do together
because it’s all well and good saying
they could but what could they do
anything they could share content they
could create content together they could
have a cheese and pickle podcast which I
think that’s particularly fun they could
have a competition just a straight for
competition they could even develop a
product together the list is endless and
pretty delicious too
but don’t be limited there because
whilst I think I probably named the best
podcast of all time don’t think well I
don’t make cheese or pickle so I am
essentially screwed on this you’re not
don’t worry if you make a product
there’ll be a product or a service out
there that complements what you do I’m
sure you can think of it now if you
start thinking about the product or the
service or the experience you offer your
customers there’ll be something out
there that complements it whatever it is
you can find somebody to be your cheese
or your pickle but how do you prevent
this so you’ve sorted out your
collaboration and you know how it’s
going to work but keep in mind you want
it to be a meaningful social interaction
and the great thing is don’t be
restricted by what’s been done before
you don’t have to be you can push the
boundaries and go beyond the great thing
about social media one of the great
things is that it’s really leveled the
playing field and you can get your
message out there for zero cost how
incredible is that you can be wild and
wacky and to be fair some of my best
ideas have started off as pretty wayward
but been tamed by people but don’t be
limited you don’t have to be anymore
it’s not just one shot you want to
enrich the lives of your fans your
followers and your collaborators too and
you want to make sure you achieve your
objectives but within the framework
that’s been set but don’t let your
collaboration in there how you gonna
promote this brilliant union that you’ve
come up with you could have a media
partner if it’s an event you could work
with bloggers and vloggers and
influencers if you want to that would be
quite good you could maybe have a live
video a thorn on one of the platforms
like Instagram or Facebook that allow
live-streaming or even a hashtag which
would be particularly hard to set up
that you could encourage people to share
your content using this hashtag you
could create specific graphics you
encourage people to share in photographs
you can be creative you can do whatever
you like it’s up to you but before I
leave you like an overexcited toddler on
Christmas morning I’m going to give you
a bit of practical advice and my three
top things to
think about when you are working on a
collaboration so the first thing is how
do you find the cheese to your pickle
well it’s not as hard or as weird as it
seems look at people that could work
with you you can pull your audience you
can ask them who they like who they
follow what things take their boxes you
can follow these people on social media
you can pick out specific hashtags that
you know the people that you might want
to collaborate with are using follow
them buy from them engage with them see
if they actually do match your values or
if they’ve just got a product that’s
quite nice make sure they align with you
think about what they add what they can
bring to your party and indeed what you
can give to theirs because it’s not a
collaboration otherwise the next one is
throw away the box
they just think outside it burn the damn
thing I can’t be doing the marketing
metaphors on a good day so don’t worry
about what’s been done before
you don’t have to do anymore you can do
what you like
but be creative and be have fun with it
that’s the point the next thing is to
start now well not now cuz it’s a few
more people after me but now ish because
some collaborations work really quickly
and everything aligns and it’s brilliant
and others take a little longer and some
you just don’t want to get involved with
after a very short amount of time but
that is fine that’s the process but get
cracking if it were easy everybody would
be doing it and it’s not hard but it
does take hard work to find the right
people because you don’t just want to do
this once you want to replicate it too
if you put in the work you will find the
right people it will push you outside
your comfort zone but when you get that
correct alignment and everything works
it’s just for a marketing geek it’s
heaven and it’ll be really good for your
business too I think social media
definitely gets a bad rap but when you
look at the figures alone you’ve got to
take it really seriously for literally
zero investment you can promote your
business on any of these platforms for
free people hop back to the good old
days wearing you know all the social
media wasn’t around
but were they even like good for small
business because I don’t think they were
you couldn’t compete with the big boys
because you just couldn’t get anywhere
near their budget and if you did if you
put a lot towards it you only have one
shot advertising cost an absolute
fortune in printed media and it is still
quite an expensive route but you don’t
even have to get involved with that now
if you don’t want to and if you don’t
have the budget for free you can do the
work and if you’ve got a few quid you
can also promote it for a very little
budget that’s completely in your control
another thing is that now you actually
have the potential to go viral and to
have your content shared in a way that
you can’t control which will wise any
big budget campaign write out the way
and that’s brilliant and there’s been so
many ways so many great examples of that
too there wasn’t all that much
creativity in my opinion before we had
access to all of this and the creativity
was definitely down but now we can
harness that and that is where in my
opinion we should be going if used well
social media is brilliant it has the
ability to connect people and get people
from your tribe into raving fans that
are your cheerleaders out there so find
people to collaborate with the Batman –
your Robin the Shrek – your donkey the
cheese – your pickle or if you fancy it
go for a whole team of Avengers I’ve
seen that work quite well – you have the
power to thrive and grow and own your
own destiny harness that and kill it
with creativity and collaboration thank
you [Applause]
a change in their newsfeed and it sent
people into panic Facebook were moving
the goalposts again and people weren’t
taking it all that well the people who
had changed the face of how we market
our businesses and how we promote
ourselves were making it harder again
after kicking marketing really rather
hard and quite repetitively they were
doing it again
people were really cross they huffed and
they puffed but they didn’t blow that
over two billion strong Facebook house
down but I kind of felt that you’re
missing the point a little because the
changes weren’t there to upset people in
fact they were there to make the user
experience on Facebook so much better
the whole point was to create more
meaningful and genuine reactions isn’t
that what we should all be looking for
anyway the Facebook post that announced
this change said word for word I’m
changing the goal of our product teams
from focusing on helping you to find
relevant content online to helping you
have more meaningful interactions there
were many a hyped up blog post about how
could how you could cheat the algorithm
and how you could do this do that how
people were leaving Facebook and I did
also see the irony that a lot of these
were put on the very platform they were
moaning about and it was it was a
problem it was going to sting businesses
but only businesses that weren’t doing
it properly to start with or who weren’t
happy and willing to adapt personally I
was really pleased to see the back of
these clickbait and engagement based
posts because whenever there’s someone
who deserves a puppy or a gin or a
kitten are my name’s never there I think
it’s one of the perks maybe of having a
rather odd name
but although I’ve talked about Facebook
here it’s not just Facebook it’s all
social media platforms and the algorithm
does get a bit of a hard time on these
the thing is that we can’t control the
algorithm so there’s no point in
whinging about it all we can do is see
what it was us to achieve
make it work for us in the best way that
we possibly can and I think that is what
we should all be aiming for so when all
these changes were announced I didn’t
panic I mean call me stupid and ha be
honest I’ve been called a lot worse than
that but why why panic because you can’t
change it I know it did mean with the
creativity and collaboration which are
two things that I have seen work time
and again and fused with my own clients
for literally years we’re going to come
to the fore and I thought that was kind
of exciting it was also going to allow
us to have more genuine interactions and
and to get this following it and put
across our authenticity which is what it
should all be about anyway
it was going to help enhance the lives
of the people who we have the pleasure
of dealing with and those who follow us
and that’s I think really what we should
be aiming for anyway so if we can start
with collaborations if we can so I think
I blame the media largely but we’re
taught from quite a young age that it’s
possible to achieve success on the road
and in fact there are lots of people out
there who have achieved great things all
on their own because they’re brilliant
and supreme powerful but it’s not really
the case if you scratch the surface a
little if you think of people like
Richard Branson for example you think of
him as the face of Bergeon and indeed he
is a huge part of the business but he’s
not the whole business and actually a
blog on his own platform in October 2016
very much dissuaded this idea it’s
definitely a team effort
it’s not him acting on his own the great
thing is that other people as well as
ourselves hold the answer to our success
and I think that’s that’s really
exciting as well in a time when
isolation is something that people talk
about an awful lot more we now have the
tarte chance to turn this on its head
and make it not such a big deal for any
of us we have the power to change our
own lives and other people too in the
words of Helen Keller alone we can do so
little but together we can do so much so
let’s think about a really good social
media brand and brothers absolutely
on there so you’ll probably see they
have a nice tribe of fans and followers
and doesn’t necessarily the number isn’t
the big deal here but they have a
engaged group of people who like the
content they’re putting out there the
content will be good it’ll be quality
video it’ll be well-thought-out captions
it’ll be great graphics and images but
the thing is that these pick the
businesses aren’t just shouting about
what they’re doing and then going off
they’re engaging they’re being sociable
you’ll see a two and a fro and a chat
and all of this is what makes it really
really special
this will make customers not just feel
like they want to buy from the brand but
also that they have some kind of loyalty
towards the brand that they want to
engage with them they want to help them
on their journey now think about all
these brilliant things I’ve talked about
and let’s imagine that somebody who
makes pickles for example has this so
that he has a tribe of really excited
fans and followers who completely love
his pickle based amusements and
obviously his product and now what if he
found another business to work with that
would bring out the best in his pickle
but also would appeal to his pickle fans
let’s say a cheese maker for example so
you have a cheese maker who also has
this tribe of fans who love his cheesy
humor and his lovely lovely products and
what if they work together what would it
look like because they’re not competing
they don’t conflict tall far from it
they complement each other so what would
it look like in terms of how we see it
it would be sharing an audience it will
be introducing each other to each
other’s products it will be supporting
the customers of each to help improve
and enhance their experience with
something that we know they already like
and what could that actually do together
because it’s all well and good saying
they could but what could they do
anything they could share content they
could create content together they could
have a cheese and pickle podcast which I
think that’s particularly fun they could
have a competition just a straight for
competition they could even develop a
product together the list is endless and
pretty delicious too
but don’t be limited there because
whilst I think I probably named the best
podcast of all time don’t think well I
don’t make cheese or pickle so I am
essentially screwed on this you’re not
don’t worry if you make a product
there’ll be a product or a service out
there that complements what you do I’m
sure you can think of it now if you
start thinking about the product or the
service or the experience you offer your
customers there’ll be something out
there that complements it whatever it is
you can find somebody to be your cheese
or your pickle but how do you prevent
this so you’ve sorted out your
collaboration and you know how it’s
going to work but keep in mind you want
it to be a meaningful social interaction
and the great thing is don’t be
restricted by what’s been done before
you don’t have to be you can push the
boundaries and go beyond the great thing
about social media one of the great
things is that it’s really leveled the
playing field and you can get your
message out there for zero cost how
incredible is that you can be wild and
wacky and to be fair some of my best
ideas have started off as pretty wayward
but been tamed by people but don’t be
limited you don’t have to be anymore
it’s not just one shot you want to
enrich the lives of your fans your
followers and your collaborators too and
you want to make sure you achieve your
objectives but within the framework
that’s been set but don’t let your
collaboration in there how you gonna
promote this brilliant union that you’ve
come up with you could have a media
partner if it’s an event you could work
with bloggers and vloggers and
influencers if you want to that would be
quite good you could maybe have a live
video a thorn on one of the platforms
like Instagram or Facebook that allow
live-streaming or even a hashtag which
would be particularly hard to set up
that you could encourage people to share
your content using this hashtag you
could create specific graphics you
encourage people to share in photographs
you can be creative you can do whatever
you like it’s up to you but before I
leave you like an overexcited toddler on
Christmas morning I’m going to give you
a bit of practical advice and my three
top things to
think about when you are working on a
collaboration so the first thing is how
do you find the cheese to your pickle
well it’s not as hard or as weird as it
seems look at people that could work
with you you can pull your audience you
can ask them who they like who they
follow what things take their boxes you
can follow these people on social media
you can pick out specific hashtags that
you know the people that you might want
to collaborate with are using follow
them buy from them engage with them see
if they actually do match your values or
if they’ve just got a product that’s
quite nice make sure they align with you
think about what they add what they can
bring to your party and indeed what you
can give to theirs because it’s not a
collaboration otherwise the next one is
throw away the box
they just think outside it burn the damn
thing I can’t be doing the marketing
metaphors on a good day so don’t worry
about what’s been done before
you don’t have to do anymore you can do
what you like
but be creative and be have fun with it
that’s the point the next thing is to
start now well not now cuz it’s a few
more people after me but now ish because
some collaborations work really quickly
and everything aligns and it’s brilliant
and others take a little longer and some
you just don’t want to get involved with
after a very short amount of time but
that is fine that’s the process but get
cracking if it were easy everybody would
be doing it and it’s not hard but it
does take hard work to find the right
people because you don’t just want to do
this once you want to replicate it too
if you put in the work you will find the
right people it will push you outside
your comfort zone but when you get that
correct alignment and everything works
it’s just for a marketing geek it’s
heaven and it’ll be really good for your
business too I think social media
definitely gets a bad rap but when you
look at the figures alone you’ve got to
take it really seriously for literally
zero investment you can promote your
business on any of these platforms for
free people hop back to the good old
days wearing you know all the social
media wasn’t around
but were they even like good for small
business because I don’t think they were
you couldn’t compete with the big boys
because you just couldn’t get anywhere
near their budget and if you did if you
put a lot towards it you only have one
shot advertising cost an absolute
fortune in printed media and it is still
quite an expensive route but you don’t
even have to get involved with that now
if you don’t want to and if you don’t
have the budget for free you can do the
work and if you’ve got a few quid you
can also promote it for a very little
budget that’s completely in your control
another thing is that now you actually
have the potential to go viral and to
have your content shared in a way that
you can’t control which will wise any
big budget campaign write out the way
and that’s brilliant and there’s been so
many ways so many great examples of that
too there wasn’t all that much
creativity in my opinion before we had
access to all of this and the creativity
was definitely down but now we can
harness that and that is where in my
opinion we should be going if used well
social media is brilliant it has the
ability to connect people and get people
from your tribe into raving fans that
are your cheerleaders out there so find
people to collaborate with the Batman –
your Robin the Shrek – your donkey the
cheese – your pickle or if you fancy it
go for a whole team of Avengers I’ve
seen that work quite well – you have the
power to thrive and grow and own your
own destiny harness that and kill it
with creativity and collaboration thank
you [Applause]
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