As the self-appointed Christmas king of NixonMcInnes, I wanted to let you know what we’re doing over the festive break. As a team, we’re largely taking some well-earned holiday after what has been a brilliant year; moving offices, hiring severalnewteammembers and working with super clients. 2010 is going to be an even bigger year for us, and the industry as a whole as more and more people wake up to power of digital and the implications of living in a networked world. As an agency we’re keen to remain at the forefront of innovation, bringing cool stuff to our clients and keeping ourselves excited by never becoming complacent, and a proper mulled-wine fueled break will enable us to hit the ground running in January.
Please forgive me: I’ve been doing quite a bit of job ad-type writing this morning, and feel the need to break into a unperfect storm of bullet pointed facts.
Let’s see how it goes shall we? You’re probably not even reading this bit now are you – you’ve already skipped the bullet points with yer fancy-fast internet browsy reading skillz.
And….GO!
Whatever it is, NixonMcInnes is different
Some people think we are an ‘online PR agency’
Some people think we are a web design and build agency
We actually think we’re multi-disciplinary
We have 5 practice areas: Strategy, Communications, Research, Design & Build and Culture
The labels for each practice will evolve, but this is our plan for now…
Practice areas combine and overlap – our clients benefit from both depth (an out and out PR expert, or a down ‘n’ dirty Brand professional, or a very clever technologist) *and* breadth
Our Research practice is valued by our clients and by our own team – it’s amazing working from original and substantial insights
It’s also blooming exciting – how Market Research is evolving and reconsidering itself in the light of the social web
Rise up and become part of the changing face of the market research and wider marketing services world!
This is a rare opportunity to join our unique multi-disciplinary consultancy working with some of the biggest, most significant brands in the world. Our Mission is to help these companies engage in more meaningful and useful ways with their customers by harnessing the rapidly evolving social web.
We are expanding and creating a new board-level role to build and head-up our Research Practice. The successful candidate will stretch themselves amongst our open, democratic company culture and smart diverse team based in Brighton the digital media hub of the UK.
The overall purpose of the role is to continue to build our unique and profitable professional research practice by:
Leading the way in discovering how to blend digital social media and research.
Selling in and then profitably delivering measurable business value to clients.
Providing research insights that help clients understand their challenges and address them both tactically, and by building wider programmes that solve their problems.
Nurturing and growing our relationships with a small number of clients.
One other thing, out of respect for the people we meet and our colleagues we take hiring seriously and try to be really rigorous with our hiring. There will be effort on both sides – just to be clear from the off.
The world feels like it’s spinning faster and faster to me.
What future are we spinning towards? One future to familiarise ourselves with and think about is a harder, more challenging world.
Whilst the media coaxes us with messages of a recovery, there is a different dashboard to at least be aware of…
Ingredients for a different dashboard, to ’see’ a different future
Take Umair Haque’s truer-than-ever macropalypse. (Short version: the economics and business practices of yesterday are totally broken and everything must change).
Add John Robb’s mindblowing Global Guerillas journal and text book. (Short version: through precisely exploiting modern society and its networks and technology a ‘terrorist’ can generate an ROI inconcievable in yesterday’s world)
Sprinkle some #collapsonomics and resilient futures, with hexayurts and all. (Short version: while some people speculate about a more volatile future, these guys are actually getting down to the nitty gritty of ‘what to do about a crazy future’.)
And finish with a garnish of grassroots activism from Dan McQuillan’s link sharing on Twitter. (Short version: lots of different sorts of people around the world are being treated unfairly, and technology innovation and ‘groking’ can help them get their voice heard and their changes made, sometimes…)
In my view our job as citizens and co-workers and as a company and family members and whatever context is to create better futures for ourselves and the world. If you agree, and that’s something you are interested in, in doing a good job, then you should prepare yourselve for a variety of futures, including this harder one too.
Personally, I am optimistic. But whatever the future, it definitely isn’t going to be easy.
Following a whirlwind first couple of weeks at NixonMcInnes, I thought it was about time to introduce myself. My name’s Louise Greeves and I’m NixonMcInnes’ new Helicopter Commander, which, luckily for my piloting skills, is actually code here for social media consultant.
Having somehow got through the company’s selection process – and believe me rigorous is not the word (I’m still having nightmares about one of the role play scenarios in the windowless meeting room), I’ve been relieved to discover that psychological turmoil was only part of the interview process. Democratic business is very much a mantra that the whole team at NixonMcInnes is committed to and, although I don’t get the coding jokes that have been flying around the meeting room table yet, everyone’s quickly made me feel at home. Read more…
In my mind Cisco are the kings of B2B technology marketing, and are also organising themselves in some very interesting networked ways to compete in the internet age. At their recent Cisco Velocity Partner event I offered my thoughts on 8 key principles for B2B tech marketers engaging with social media.
After my talk Alexandra Krasne, who is a cool Cisco video person, made a quick video.
I say the word network too many times (note to self!) but it might be offer one or two useful snippety thoughts if you are involved in B2B social media shizzle.
My thanks as always to Cisco – who are also a NixonMcInnes client – for involving me.
For me, the most compelling and interesting is the WetPaint / Altimeter Group study that found a strong link between company performance and use of social media. As I was saying the other day, it’s not easy to prove that the social media use caused the increased sales, but if social media is something that successful companies are doing then I think it’s safe to assume that they’re on to something good.
This is a blog post that I’ve wanted to write for a loooooong time! As we enter our 10th year of business – most of which have been in somewhat ‘rough around the edges’ serviced offices – we’re finally moving to a nice shiny HQ of our own in central Brighton.
Here’s the important info:
Our last day at the Brighton Media Centre is this Friday – 20 November.
Mail sent to our old address will be redirected for a few months.
New phone numbers will be updated on our website once we have themare here. We’ll also email everyone we know.
Old phone numbers will be redirected for as long as necessary, but please do update your address book once you have the new numbers as the Brighton Media Centre will eventually need to recycle the old ones.
We’ve worked hard to make sure that our email will work seamlessly and we have various techies on red alert during the switch-over (although personally I’m cynical about these things and expect something to go wrong with an ISP or a server somewhere in the process!) If you are worried about an urgent communication getting through, please call us on 01273 648301. But I’m sure it’ll all be fine. Really.
All of our client’s websites are safe and sound in data centres in London and will be completely unaffected by our office move, so that’s something that we don’t have to worry about.
Yes, there will be an office warming party once we’ve settled in.
If you’re a client or friend of ours and are curious about the new place, just drop us a line and we’d love to have you pop in for a cuppa and a look around.
OK that’s the practical stuff. On a self-indulgent and sentimental note, I just wanted to say what a big deal this is not just for me – who has worked in the same building since 2001 – but for the whole team here at NM.
Over the last couple of years, if you had asked just about anyone on the team if they could change one thing about working here, the answer would have almost certainly been ‘FFS – WE NEED A NEW OFFICE!’ We’ve been cramped; split over two floors; and put up with strange smells in the corridor (“Is that the odour of fish soup, or is there another dead pigeon in the lift shaft?”)
Brighton is a nightmare if you’re in the market for a decent quality office around 2000 square foot. We had a couple of false starts with other places, and the team have been so patient and tolerant of our sub-standard digs. We kind of can’t believe that we’re finally moving.
Our new office has such basic features as: a proper boardroom; kitchen; quiet working room (for when Will’s random outbursts are interrupting your flow) and a lovely creative space with a floor-to-ceiling whiteboard, big screen and beanbags where we can stroke our chins and invent the future for our clients.
Creating the new seating plan has been an interesting challenge. In a democratic company, everyone gets a say, and the directors don’t get any special treatment (damn!)
Probably the biggest unanswered question is what to do about the office stereo. The Wednesday tradition of the love hour will stay, but any suggestions about how to get 18 people to agree on what to play on the office airwaves would be much appreciated in the comments.
Finally, a HUGE thank you to Lasy for sorting the legals and financials; Josh, Anna, Jenni and Edd for planning the interior; but most of all to Leesa for co-ordinating absolutely everything else.
So… YAY TO NEW OFFICES! Can’t wait to have you round.
Here’s an interesting presentation about measuring the real ROI of social media that’s been doing the rounds this week. It’s worth it for the picture of the ‘Social Media Manager’ alone :)
I love the focus on getting to the real ROI of social media in financial terms (not followers, friends, fans, retweets, comments…) but it left two questions in my mind:
1) In a large organisation, how realistic is it to benchmark financial performance ‘before social media’ and ‘after social media’? If a large publicly listed company posts great quarterly results after starting a social media programme, could you really assert that social media was the cause when there are thousands of other programmes running in the business to try to cut costs and increase revenue.
2) The presentation says we should try to correlate social media measurements with financial indicators. But there’s the old problem of establishing causation: Did sales increase as a result of positive buzz increasing, or was the company doing some other things right that led to increased sales and positive buzz? It reminded me of this study about the Nissan Pathfinder.
I can see this model working in businesses that are relatively easy to measure like online retail but is it too simple to be a panacea for measuring social media ROI across the board? I’d love to know what others think about this.
Yesterday hailed a bit of a landmark for our forward-thinking local council in how they use the web to serve local residents.
Like lots of other other councils in the UK, they’ve had a presence in social spaces for a while now, with a Facebook page, Twitter profile and YouTube channel. In the meantime they’ve been working out how they can best use these spaces to actually engage rather than simply represent (disclaimer – this is something we’ve been helping them with).
A simple Twitter conversation yesterday proves that they absolutely do get it. Of course this example is just a start and there’s more that can be done (the conversation happens over a few hours), but it’s a great indication.
One local resident spotted a pedestrian light stuck on red, and tweeted about it at the Brighton & Hove City Council twitter profile:
Not only did the Council respond to thank the person and reassure them it was being looked into…
…but really did have it fixed and tweeted back to confirm:
As I say, this is just a small step, but one that points in a massively positive direction.
Some cities in the US have pioneered the use of social platforms as tools for communicating with their local residents – San Francisco’s SF311 non-emergency Twitter reporting service being a prime example.
Here in the UK however, most of our public sector bodies are still working out how these channels can be used for real public engagement. A quick check through the 129 UK local councils on twitter shows that, with a handful of exceptions (props to Derbyshire County Council), Twitter is used mainly as a means of pushing information out, at best soliciting feedback via surveys on their own websites.
Given the logistics involved in communicating with all of the residents of Brighton who are on Twitter, I’m not suggesting this single event sets a definite precedent (though others may disagree), but it is indicative of a forward-thinking attitude towards how the social web can be used and has definitely generated some good karma.
Recently, and with worrying regularity, Twitter has become a platform for a series of high-profile bashings. First was Jan Moir thanks to her unpleasant article concerning Stephen Gately, then Ian Morbin, a (former) London Underground worker exposed by a well-timed video, and most recently AA Gill who unwisely used a restaurant review to gush about baboon killing. On each occasion Twitter users have lead the public outcry, calling for resignations or worse, which has lead to some questioning how orchestrated these mobs were, and others wondering whether the timing of such a scandal determined the scale of the impact. Read more…
…but really did have it fixed and tweeted back to confirm:
