Hit LIKE if you!

You know the ones.

Those brands who clog up your timeline.

Hit LIKE if you… SHARE if you… COMMENT if you…

We all laugh at their incompetence. We ridicule them. We despise them. Maybe even pity them. How could they be so clueless? They just don’t ‘get’ it.

We want to be inspired by truly social brands. The thought leaders. Those that understand it’s value, it’s potential. Brands like…? LIKE Paddy Power!

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Caring is King! Third Sector leads the charge in the field of social.

Caring is King

There is often a feeling that the Third Sector is inexorably doomed to chase the tail of the Private Sector when it comes to online innovation and best practice, but my recent conference experience and industry gut feeling tell me that when it comes to social media the worm has turned.

One of the key factors in this observation was the latest who’s who in social, the Social Brands 100. This year’s list contained an unprecedented number of charities (almost 25% of the Top 100) and the research undertaken led the custodians of this report to state that; “It was long thought that content was king. This was replaced by the mantra that curation is king. But our findings suggest a new idiom… Caring is King”

Charities are built upon caring and it is this foundation that is leading to the successes being seen within social media. Traditional business techniques are failing in the social world and after years of trying it seems that the Private Sector is finally waking up to this new way of working.

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Life’s too short for cheap guitars… Week Four #lovemyhat

The hat visits the mystical Avebury Stone Circle
The hat visits the mystical Avebury Stone Circle

So the time has come where I reach the end of my millinery social experiment. I have shared my experiences of wearing a hat for over four weeks and hope that you have enjoyed at least some part of it. My hat has become part of who I am and will remain firmly upon my head, but I might spare you all the constant updates.

I feel that I have learnt so much during this period, way beyond the simple day-to-day trials of the hat wearer. Things about myself and those around me. It has changed me. Maybe not fundamentally, but in lots of little ways.

Would I recommend you wear a hat? Absolutely!

Yes they’re a pain in the arse when it’s windy, they make your head sweat and it’s yet another thing to carry around. But, for the moment at least, when you wear one you feel special, you’re part of a select crowd of individuals and you’re VERY easy to spot in a crowd.

My only piece of advice would be this though. Jerry Jeff Walker speaks the absolute truth when he says “Life’s too short for cheap guitars”. If you decide to join the millinery revolution and get a hat, do yourself a favour and get a good one. I know of just the place.

You can follow my day to day adventures with ‘Indi’ at twitter.com/stuartwitts or via the hashtag #lovemyhat, and if you feel inspired to purchase your very own quality headpiece, visit bates-hats.com and don’t forget to tell them Indiana sent you 😉

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat… Week Three #lovemyhat

As the great F. Scott Fitzgerald so succinctly said, this weeks defeat was not final.

I’m sure you are all aware of the severe drought conditions we experienced this week that has led to some of us in the country having to perform the ultimate sacrifice. I refer of course to the howling wind and driving rain that led me to begin this week hatless.

I know, I know. There are those of you out there doubting my commitment and even whispering “coward” behind my back. But the thought of trying to hang on to my hat, my umbrella and all the other paraphernalia that comes with the daily commute just seemed too much. How Dr. Jones ever managed to ride, jump and fight his way throughout the quadrilogy without ever losing is hat is a secret only the movie magicians know. Us mere mortals sadly have to resort to leaving it at home.

Luckily by Wednesday the weather abated and I was once again reunited with my fur felted friend. It was good to be together again. I had missed it dearly. This, what can only be described as, epiphany finally cemented the bond between myself and my hat.

Meeting of minds (hats?)
Meeting of minds (hats?)

This week also saw a truly wonderful meeting of minds (hats?) at the local eatery, when I was fortunate enough to catch up with my friend @lesanto and finally catch sight of his light grey Poet in the flesh (felt?). Yet another fine Bate’s creation confidently striding its way through the streets of London.

Amongst our many conversation topics was the inevitable looking forward to warmer weather and the need for alternatives to our current headgear. I see Panamas in our future 😉

You can follow my day to day adventures with ‘Indi’ at twitter.com/stuartwitts or via the hashtag #lovemyhat, and if you feel inspired to purchase your very own quality headpiece, visit bates-hats.com and don’t forget to tell them Indiana sent you 😉

Happiness can exist only in acceptance… Week Two #lovemyhat

It has finally happened. After just over one week of being a hat wearer the fears and insecurities have shrank away. As I leave the house each morning it seems perfectly natural to place the hat upon my head and stride off into the sunrise. It is now a part of who I am. It is becoming ‘normal’.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still odd occasions where I consciously choose not to wear my hat for fear of ridicule, but it has firmly become part of my work week wardrobe and reminds me of something Jean Luc said to me when I picked up my hat from Bates,

“You wouldn’t leave the house without your shoes. So why would you leave without your hat?”

This week also saw more acceptance as my hat got it’s first sweet taste of an April shower. It performed admirably, Phil had informed me that the ‘Indi’ was bullet-proof and he wasn’t wrong. I’ve even dropped it a few times, brushed off the dirt and carried on.

Sweaty foreheads, people carriers and the Olympic Stadium… Week One #lovemyhat

A beer on the South Bank with 'Indi' and @ChoccyHobNob

So I am coming to the end of my first week as a wearer of a hat and what a week it has been. A close friend has already decided to join the millinery renaissance and has purchased his very own hat from Bates. Another friend is almost certainly going to follow suit after we met for a beer on the South Bank and he got to fondle my ‘Indi’, and I also got to take the hat to the Olympic Stadium. But to kick off this post I’d like to talk about nerves.

Even in the great cosmopolitan city of London there aren’t that many people who choose to leave their homes in the morning with something upon their head and so it was with a sense of trepidation that I set off for work on that first day. Would I be met with confused stares? Muffled sniggers? Derisive laughter? Or maybe even actual vocal abuse?
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Only in the leap from the Lion’s head will he prove his worth… #lovemyhat

I have always been a fan of hats. Proper hats mind you, not these overly branded trucker caps that people plonk on their heads these days, but the more refined and stylish type of headgear that gentlemen used to wear. Yet despite being a fan, I have never really spent much time wearing them.

A succession of cheap, poorly-made fedoras have made their way onto my noggin, but for various reasons, have never stood the test of time. And so, as I approach my fortieth year on this planet, I have decided that it is time to do this properly… and by properly, I mean it is time to wear the only hat that any man would ever want to wear, the hat that stands as a symbol for all movie millinery… the Raider’s Hat.

The Hat

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Top 10 tips on how to succeed in social media

  1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
  2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
  3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
  4. Become genuinely interested in other people.
  5. Smile.
  6. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
  7. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
  8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
  9. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.
  10. Don’t spend your time reading Top 10 tips on how to succeed in social media.

Thank you Dale Carnegie, you are as relevant now as you were over 75 years ago.

Dear Google, I’m sorry.

Google Circles

It’s fair to say that I haven’t been entirely enamored with Google in the past. At one point I likened them to the relentless consumers of civilisations from Star Trek, The BORG, with their desire to reduce everything to an algorithm. But after just a few days with Google+ it’s time to put the record straight.

G+ seem to come out of nowhere and establish itself as the place to be, certainly the majority of my network turned up within days. From the overly complicated and bloated WAVE, to the messy and noisy BUZZ, Google have clearly been slapped round the face and reminded of what made them great… Simplicity.

That’s not to say that G+ is basic, far from it. But the experience of using it feels intuitive, like something designed by Apple, and without thought you feel free to post quick Twitter like updates, pictures and links to cool shit à la Tumblr or monster Blog like rants. With Picasa and YouTube, Google now OWN the web.

For me Facebook began to wither and die when the brands and marketers turned up. Games and apps muddied the social experience, and a visit to Facebook quickly became more about dodging the sell than catching up with friends. I know that this special breed of scum will turn up in G+ soon, but luckily Google don’t need the money so it can (hopefully) be on there terms. A few adwords here and there don’t bother me in the slightest and when brand pages do turn up, I sincerely hope they look like this.

When I first played with G+ I thought that Twitter was safe and Facebook was history, but now I’m not sure anyone is safe. Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr have all been mashed together to produce one true social network, and with the layer of make-up provided by themes removed it has literally become all about the content shared. Kudos must go to Twitter for creating this real-time, short conversational mentality and to the king of social networks, Facebook, for bringing us all together in the first place. But playtime’s over kids, it’s time to let the grown-ups take control.

And so I finish by saying please accept my apology Google, I’m sorry I doubted you and this one’s for you…



Won’t somebody think of the supporters?

Facebook becomes SPECTRE

So Facebook will soon be rolling out their new layout for Pages as well and on the face of it, everything looks good.

Design is much cleaner and feels more intuitive, the top row of photographs definitely give it a more visual appeal and, finally, as a Page admin you can travel forth and engage amongst the profiles of others and comment as the voice of the brand. Although as Spiderman mused, “With great power comes great responsibility”.

Continue reading “Won’t somebody think of the supporters?”