So, I had a away day into London Town today – let out for good behaviour if you will. I was attending the Technology For Marketing & Advertising trade fair at Earl’s Court. It’s a slightly odd fit for me as it was mainly geared for the hardcore marketeers and the folk manning the stands were mainly only interested if you were a budget holder with a remit to buy into their product within 3 months, but there were some interesting seminars and lectures to be had around social media.
One of the problems that we face at work is actually getting students, staff, potential students… to engage with our twitter feed and our facebook accounts or have anyone to comment on our news stories other than spammers. So its the engagement bit that I’m interested in. After listening to a lot being said about social networking I think that I’m of the conclusion that that may well be one of the great unanswered questions. People who have it working well will tell you how great it is, and they will give you case studies over what you should and shouldn’t be doing based on their experience in their field. Asked what you should be doing in your field and they can’t help you. It’s clearly not an exact science.
What is clear is that, by far, the majority of people use the internet for learning, fun, and to socialise and that’s the same on mobile devices too. So to get with the engagement, and have people enjoying being around our social networking and our blogs and our website (and buying our products or studying at our univerAsity) I think we have to go against what our company bosses might think and give them the fun, and hope that when they decide what we can offer them, they remember our good name and come a-running.
I am tired after my day in London though. It’s nice but I couldn’t live there. It tires me, and come home feeling grubby and headachey. That said, I do like Baker Street station, all the old stonework the window shafts cut into tunnels, the decorative woodwork and the carved statues and the old Victorian tiles. Got to be one of my favourite stations.
I also saw a vision of the publishing future on the tube today. A girl who obviously works in publishing was reading PARIS IN LOVE – SECOND PASS PAGES, which I take it to mean the second pass proofs of a book on her kindle. Tonight I looked up the book on Amazon: an as yet unpublished book available to preorder.
Damn it, the girl worked for Random House! I should have got talking to her and made a contact to get my own book published…?!? *grins*
