Why you should be cashing in on the collective

21 Sep 2010

I'm not a geek. I'm a geek-stalker. I like what digital is doing to the world. I don't really understand it. But I like it. I like that I can rave about a book on Twitter and get a bashful thank you from the author and four recommendations for other books. I like that I can cruise MySpace and cackle over how boring old whatserface from school has become, since bearing her 13th bambino.

But mostly I like the kind of collective, organic, strange creativity that happens in odd corners of the interwebs. The mashups and the memes. The crazy cross-border collaboration. The conversion of ideas into action in the time it takes to put the prototype up.

So why aren't brands cashing in? Seems to me that there is suddenly the ultimate innovation and insight tool out there, and most brands are just faffing about on Facebook.

I'm being glib.

There are reams of excellent examples of brands doing sterling work in the online space. Entire terabytes of case studies of awesome campaigns with awesome results. But a lot of it is still 'listen to me' rather than 'let me find out what you think' or even better 'let me involve you and your fab ideas on the team'.

Read the full article on www.memeburn.com.

Source: Memeburn

Launched in April 2010 by Matthew Buckland, Memeburn is a news and opinion platform tracking tech culture, innovation and business. It plays particular attention to the web, mobile, social media, online media and social networking fields. Key opinion-leaders contribute to Memeburn, providing their insights on the online industry. Subscribe via email or RSS for regular updates. Follow memeburn on Twitter at @memeburn.

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About Kate Wolters

Kate Wolters works for brand development and marketing insight consultancy Added Value as its group communications manager. Wolters is a contributor on www.memeburn.com.