Social Media Tips for the Consumer

I have seen many Twitter HOWTO's and Guides, but I have yet to come across one that shows consumers how they can get the attention of brands/products. We have all been busy talking about how we can talk to consumers, how we can engage with them.. which is all great, but we seem to forget that just like marketers, a lot of these social media tools are new to consumers as well. After all, we are all consumers.

Being on the monitoring end of things, I hope that I can give some insights to how brands see the world and how you, the consumer, can make your voice better heard. The most important thing you need to know is this: good brands are really trying to listen.

Give your opinion weight

Simplify your sentiments

Engage with the top

You can read more in my Social Media Tips for the Consumer post.

Twestival

Dubai's Twestival event, one of the world-wide Twestivals being held in over 200 countries between the 10th-13th September, takes place at Jam Jar, the funky gallery space thingy in Al Quoz, this coming Saturday (the 12th September) from 8pm. There's a map to Jam Jar here, BTW.

This is the second Twestival - a meet-up of people interested in social media in general and Twitter in particular - the first was at Barasti back at the start of the year and drew an interesting and diverse crowd.

Like the first Dubai Twestival, this event will have charitable fund-raising in mind, although this time the global events are being dubbed 'Twestival Local' and are raising money for local charities. In this case, funds raised from the event will go to the Dubai Autism Centre.

Pre-registration is a must as the event is almost certainly going to be full. Registration opened yesteday, so I'd get in early while you can. You can get more information and register for the event on the official Twestival website here.

Iran engages in packet inspection

Wall Street Journal:

The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

Instead, in confronting the political turmoil that has consumed the country this past week, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

Lovely.

One presumes other governments bought the capability.

Ford - Middle East Bloggers - Did they Contact You To Assist With Their Campaign?

According to a story in Emirates Business 24/7 the Middle East bloggers failed to respond at all to their oh so clever social media marketing campaign...

"Ford is to count on the efforts of 100 bloggers to launch its new Fiesta model. However, Middle East Ford officials said they won't be able to replicate the innovative campaign here as they feel blogger marketing in the region still lags behind other cyber marketing tools."

"According to Ford, the campaign was the first of its kind in the automotive segment. Bloggers invited to offer their inputs from around the region, however, generated no response."

I suggest the failure was not Middle East bloggers failing to respond, or be ready for such an initiative, I suggest the failure was in their communication and engagement of the Middle East blogger community.

As a little experiment - I'd like to ask did anyone here know of this campaign, see their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter or most pertinently be directly asked by Ford to participate.

Further reading and commentary at the ever reliable Fake Plastic Souks

Responses please...