Robert's PlayGround

Why social media are the future of branding

Should I volunteer for split personality?

Driven by curiosity I just recently joined Twitter. Probably right before the butcher 'round the corner will ;-) Never mind. As with blogging, getting to grips with Twitter is an educational experience. It's an experiment and a joy at the same time. Today I got aware of an interesting dilemma. When I first started sending my tweets into oblivion these messages were pure ego fart as I heard Tweets being called. I was working on a story about myself in chunks of 140 characters max. About me. As a private person. I took a while before I started to realize that these sheer private tweets got mixed in my 'timeline' with other people's tweets that were entirely business oriented and less about them. Mmmmmm. Important question. What is my goal with Twitter? Is it a social experiment in personal life and do I share rather intimate trivia about my life? Or should I treat Twitter as a stage for my persona 'the self employed professional'? Will friends get bored with business talk? Or do I embarrass myself or business contacts with 'too much information'? Of course: I could go for split personality and create two separate Twitter accounts. But that just feels as an easy escape. It appears to me as a challenge to just present @Essenstamtam as one persona that is both a professional and a father/husband/friend/bon vivant/book collector etc. Let's just see where that leads. Maybe there's a better way to approach this: what would other people find interesting enough to hit the 'follow' button with my profile? That requires a little think work. What do you think? Should I twitter private? Shoud I twitter professional? Or should I tweet as myself and mix business with pleasure?

Navigating by brands

People use brands to navigate in various ways. Brands help them to find their way in shops, Dutch women magazine Libelle just added another application: a branded car navigation system. Together with CosmicNavigation they developed a special navigation system for women. Offering a quite female design and a 'woman friendly' touch screen interface. Above that, the Libelle car navigation system leads its users to addresses of shops, restaurants, museums and other cultural places selected by Libelle readers. After introducing the Netherlands first branded event - Libelle Zomerweken <Libelle Summer Weeks>   - this magazine has proven to be a true innovator again. And again an excellent example of how customer/brand relationships can be fueled and enriched by adding an experiential touch point . This litterally brings brands to life and feels so much smarter than creating another printed spin-off magazine, which seems to be the obvious thing to do for a magazine publisher.

We are the web

Web 2.0 explained brilliantly.

The fascination with ourselves

Real life TV drama such as Big Brother and Expeditie Robinson kicked off a whole new episode in the evolution of this medium. It's fascinating that the fascination of other people with themselves is so engaging and attractive. I don't even need dramatic events to get sucked into the lives of people who expose themselves in such an intimate way. Peeking inside somebody's life is extraordinary enough. Similar private exposures on the Internet are not new (blogs such as mine are a fair example as well), nevertheless, sometimes you see something extraordinary. Such as the compilation below. This is the second time in a short period that I ran into a compilation of daily pictures like this (the other one was made by an Asian girl). Just observe and see what thoughts pop up in your mind as you see Noah age.

Build your virtual self @ H&M

Are you tired of fighting for parkings, the right clothes and fitting cabins at overcrowded and messy clothing shops? Then build your own virtual self at H&M and fit as many combinations as you like without even taking your shoes off. Warning: filling out your personal body specs in order to create your virtual model may come as a bit of a confrontation ;-O.