I wrote about the FUEL Conference earlier and what a success I believe it to have been; but I didn’t go into my thoughts following the event.
It strikes me that company culture is a key factor in a successful social and community strategy.
The companies that are doing well and really engaging with their customers through communities, social networks and other web 2.0 tools are those that are doing so as an extension of their company culture and their business model if you will.
They are companies that truly value their customers, that really want to engage with them in honest and open dialogue, that want to have fun and that want to create remarkable products and experiences.
They have, to paraphrase Tara Hunt, “made happiness their business model”.
These are not companies that have outsourced their call centres to India, in fact these are companies that have banana phones rather than call centres.
These are not companies that are solely motivated by profit but if you treat your customers with respect and give them great experiences and products the bottom line will naturally follow.
I was intrigued by Carsonified’s latest conference FUEL when it was announced as it seemed to span personal and professional interests – looking at both the power of community and the power of cloud computing and how companies can use both to fuel their business.
FUEL took place last Friday and was one of the best, if not the best conference I’ve been to. The conference itself was relatively small which made chatting and “networking” easier and more pleasant – no milling about in vast areas with endless queues for coffee.
The event was held at the RIBA building which itself added a lovely ambience; a wonderful contrast of last century architecture with the latest in online thinking.
It was that thinking I went for and I wasn’t disappointed. I haven’t felt as energised and motivated by a group of speakers since the first @Media back in 2005.
Highlights of the day were:
Tara Hunt – I wasn’t really aware of Tara before the FUEL but wow. Great ideas and a brilliant rapidfire presentation style – 260 slides in fast succession. Tara’s book The Whuffie Factor looks like it’s going to be a great read when it’s released.
Alex Hunter – Alex is from Virgin America and showed how a big brand can use communities and creativity to generate huge buzz and awareness for a new company. I’m still stunned that in the 21st Century the US can be allowed to be so restrictive on foreign ownership of an airline.
Ted Hunt – a brilliant case study into how Innocent Drinks have used a multitude of social networks and communities to help in building the “Innocent Family”. Awe inspiring creativity and commitment to genuine dialogue with their customers. If there is just one company to use as a role model – it’s Innocent.
Honourable mentions go to:
Paul Boag – entertaining as always with some sound advice for building a great website.
Richard Moross – of Moo fame. Richard showed how Moo have built a brand and style for Moo.
And last but no means least:
Ryan Carson – opened the day with a great session on the new rules for business – how you should think about and approach your customers and great ways of engaging with them.
Lowlights? Only the thinly veiled Microsoft pitch from Howard/Baines. I know Ryan likes to keep the cost of Carsonified conferences down with sponsorship but there must be a better way to allow a sponsor to get their message across. But enough of the lowlights.
It was great to finally meet and chat to Ryan. I also managed to meet up with Paul Fabretti who I’ve chatted to over Twitter for a while now and the internets Drew McLellan who I’ve not had the chance to speak with before. I would have loved a chance to chat with Tara Hunt but sadly she was struggling with jetlag and so not around for much of the day.
I’m sure that FUEL will quickly become one of the must attend conferences. Congratulations to Ryan and team for arranging a great event, thanks to the speakers for for a wealth of ideas and passion and thanks to my fellow attendees for adding to the buzz of the day.
Many of you that know me, know that I am moderately addicted to Twitter; an addiction many of you also profess not to understand as you don’t “get” Twitter*.
So what is Twitter and why do I like it?
Twitter is a micro-blogging tool – Tweets are limited to 140 characters
It’s a communication method somewhere between IM and email.
It’s a social network – taking the only good part of Facebook “David is” and doing away with the rubbish.
I like Twitter because for me it’s an ambient social network and source of news and opinion; it’s always there (well maybe no always given it’s current uptime travails) but completely unobtrusive. I think a key difference is that for most users you can just follow them without having to be accepted – follow anybody and see what they are saying and to who.
I also like the multitude of ways in which I can update and follow Twitter; from Hahlo (the best webapp I’ve seen) and MobileTwitter (mostly for updating Twitpic) on my iPhone to Twitterrific on my Macs – although I still prefer the good old fashioned website.
If you haven’t tried Twitter try it now. and if you’ve tried it before try it again. The secret is to start following interesting people, you can follow me here @davidhughes and to then share with your friends.
I’m amused that one of my most Tweeted words is actually Twitter, I’m not surprised that I’ve talked about the iPhone so much (I does love my iPhone I does) and rather pleased that I have used the word love so often, although I suspect it is a things for things and concepts rather than people.
So get on Twitter now, start following me and “join the conversation”.
* Dear friends from the real world I’d love to see you on Twitter and well as my friends from the interwebs.
I don’t think that I have ever seen such a wealth of believablerumours for a new product, as those for the alleged 3G iPhone that are flooding the interwebs as we speak. If Steve Jobs doesn’t announce a 3G iPhone at WWDC on June 9 I and many others will be jolly surprised.
You may remember that I said I’d be waiting for the 3G iPhone before I bought one; well I didn’t manage to wait very long, buying one just after the were released here in the UK. I love my iPhone, it is without doubt the best phone or “breakthrough internet device” that I’ve ever owned. Bear in mind I would change my mobile every three months or so and I’ve owned my iPhone for six months now with no signs of boredom. I really can’t imagine having a phone with buttons again…
However, the iPhone does have one achilles heel for me and that is data speed. I work in Hicktown, Hickshire with no EDGE cells at all, which combined with my employers belief that WiFi is the work of the devil means for much of my day I’m stuck with GPRS only – how very 90s.
So I’m sure you’ll understand that I am looking forward to iPhone 2.0 with anticipation, but what else do I want from the next generation iPhone?
Speed: Yes I want 3G but I want HSDPA as well – 3.5G if you will – for super speedy downloads and to make up for using GPRS for six months.
Form Factor: Not that there is anything wrong with the current iPhone, but slimmer and lighter is always better. Up until today the rumours have all said thicker but tonight a Wired writer is reporting that iPhone 2.0 will be 22% thinner and have better battery life. I do hope he’s correct.
MMS: My wife was amazed when I had to begrudgingly admit that my shiny new £279 phone couldn’t send or receive MMS messages. I hope Apple have added this basic functionality but I haven’t seen any reports of such functionality in the new firmware betas that are available.
Storage: 8Gb is OK I suppose, I mean 100 albums is pretty good going but more can’t hurt can it? 300 albums with a 32Gb iPhone would be great.
Movies: Of course if I’m able to take movies with my new 3G iPhone then more storage will be very handy. Quicktime movies please Apple.
Task and Notes Sync: Apple added Tasks and Notes to Mail in Leopard but surprisingly these do not sync with the iPhone; a clear oversight that should be fixed with iPhone 2.0.
iPod Sort: The iPod in the iPhone does not sort in the same way as my iPods or iTunes and it really bugs me. Sort options would be very nice.
Email “home” Button: If you ahev more than one email account (and who doesn’t?) getting back to the list of those accounts from the another inbox seems to take far too many clicks. It is in fact just three but it feels like two too many – a simple “home” button would be a nice time saver.
Only time and Steve Jobs will tell if the rumours and images are correct and if I will get any of the items on my iPhone 2.0 wishlist.
What do you want from from the nest generation iPhone?
