Crowdsourcing creative, having work discussed in Marketing Week and having yourself compared to Perperami are all first for me and the Council. You can read the various takes on things below. And more importantly, you can see how to enter phase two of the promotion, Bus Stop Bingo here. Cameras at the ready…..

Marketing Week

Mad.co.uk

UtalkMarketing

Social Media Monday

So you’d think “Why Fairtrade?” was a question that didn’t need to be asked. However, having immersed myself thoroughly in the blogosphere listening to the discussions raging around free versus fair trade (if only the world were that black and white), about which of the various labelling initiatives was “the best”, about how mainstreaming is just a marketing scam, I thought perhaps I should take myself back to basics.

What exactly does Fairtrade do to benefit the producers?

Well, I’ve also spent some time in the real world as well as cyberspace, and have been privileged to hear directly from producers about what difference Fairtrade has made to them and to their communities. As you’ll know, under Fairtrade the farmers receive:

• Agreed stable and sustainable prices
• An extra payment (a “social premium”) to invest in their community

In all the talk about fair-washing and price fixing this second commitment is the bit that seems to get lost.

So how are the premiums set?

These social premiums are set by the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) Standards and Policies Committee, which includes producer representatives. Farmers and farm workers (and industry workers, in the case of manufactured goods), thus participate in determining appropriate premiums for new products, just as they participate in determining appropriate Fairtrade minimum prices.

How can the premiums be used?

FLO does not attempt to dictate specifically how these funds must be spent, except to state that social premiums should not be spent on operating costs or salaries. Instead, the model allows cooperatives and joint bodies to determine for themselves how to best meet their local development needs. The Fairtrade standards require that these funds be distributed democratically and transparently. Cooperatives send reports of their premium expenses to FLO, and must be able to document their plans for use of premiums in their business plans.

And because Fairtrade requires cooperatives and other organizations to demonstrate progress towards socioeconomic development, the producers’ organizations without exception invest some of their revenues in educational and social programmes. Examples of these range from cervical cancer screening programmes to hospital buildings, from ensuring all school age kids had a midday meal to IT centres and basket ball courts.

According to the producers I’ve met, this social premium, this empowerment to invest in what their specific community needs, is what really makes Fairtrade stand out.

More information on the premium and its uses can be found within FLO’s Standards for various Fairtrade products can be found here.

For more about the producers and how Fairtrade is helping them, click here.

And you can watch cocoa producers from Ghana explain more here:

It got me thinking that all of us hanging about in cyber-space all day are maybe taking it for granted that now that over 70% of households have internet access (80% of Londoners), and almost every public space seemingly Wi-Fi’d up, that naturally everyone wants to get online at every opportunity. They’d love to blog if they knew how. They’d love to post up videos on a branded YouTube channel if we set them some challenges. They’d love chat in forums if we only pointed them in the direction of the right one for them. Build it and they will participate.

Then, you know how it is, I keep spotting articles and hearing comments that make you remember it’s just not that simple. In the Observer on Sunday, an article on newspapers getting the online space right, the large number of online businesses advertising in print and on TV was mentioned (apparently when asked the majority of the public seem to think the TV is where the best brands advertise). A Google Alert this morning pointed me in the direction of a blog post on ZDNet about how companies increasingly insist on turning their staff into brand evangelists, with the infamous example of Best Buy asking for 250 Twitter followers on as a criteria on a job ad. As the blog points out, what about those who are not extroverts, not naturally inclined to virtually network, not keen to share their thoughts with relative strangers? What if companies use such trackable activity as part of their assessment criteria for promotions and pay rises as well as recruitment?

With all the emphasis on social media in all areas of business, are we running the risk of alienating core segments of the population, as was heavily debated in the late 90s/early Noughties in the first wave of the dot com boom? Or are we just at the start of a new media wave that is penetrating into mainstream at a rip roaring rate?

Other people’s thoughts at:

eWeek Blog: How Social Media May Be Hurting Careers.

ZDNet Blog: Using social media to turn all staff into customer service reps.

TechCrunch blog: How free Social Media beat the recruitment consultants to death.

And if you’re feeling flush (and work with/in HR) there’s a new piece of research by Adrienne Corn, founder of Ventus and PhD student, has just published a Human Resources and Social Media Survey. (I’ve read the executive summary, and it looks like an interesting, robust piece of research so worth saving up for.)

Why am I telling you this? Well, I only found out about the place by chance, from someone I don’t know, whose calling card is a tiny Banksy, and who likes to share nuggets about London with large groups of strangers.  Yep, you’ve guessed it, a Tweet caught my eye (thanks @LDN) and I galvanized a group of us to go.

When, like all great inventions, it was discovered by accident and was launched in 2007, I really couldn’t see the point of Twitter.  A sentiment allegedly echoed by its developers.  That map with the pop up flags and inane responses to the question “what are you doing”?  Who cared that a stranger in Tokyo was about to go shopping or another in Seattle was watching sports?

Then it changed. New look, more akin to a regular web page, more buzz around it on blogs and in the media.  Stephen Fry adopts it, so even more buzz.  And clients started to ask about it.  So I set myself up with an account so I could comment with some modicum of authority. And I waited. And waited.   Nothing happened.  Then I started to get stuck in: follow and be followed, try to say interesting stuff, try to say it regularly.

Yes there’s a tsunami of noise on there, but get tuned in and check in with those whose musings you  enjoy and you’ll find out about events, campaigns, jobs (I’ve already blogged about using social media to look for work, and Twitter continues to be one of my most successful sources),  or if handlebar moustaches are coming back.

There’s a host of accounts in there set up for people doing extreme/slightly insane challenges. There’s a host of NGOs getting involved, with charities such as Amnesty UK, Oxfam and WarChild really making the most of it with everything from Tweets from those in the field to running specific lobbying campaigns. There’s the well documented citizen journalism side, with the events of Tehran, the breaking of the news of the Hudson River air crash, and indeed the high volume Tweeting of Michael Jackson’s death being just some of the examples.

It’s prompting creativity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiGWV-irAyM

It’s prompting conversation: I spent last night pitching my idea for a live Twitter feed to friends getting married in New Zealand.  As the wedding is not till January 2010 I suspect it won’t be the first with messages broadcast live instead of the traditional telegram read by the Best Man. But that’s not the point. As a couple who’ve lived away from NZ and travelled widely for a number of years this will allow them to share their day with friends around the globe as it happens. Even if some of us are in our dressing gowns.

As Twitter continues to evolve, and it gets easier to edit out the irrelevant bits, the question is surely not “What’s the point” rather “How do we engage?” Personally, I am fully fledged convert to Haiku blogging. Just hope it doesn’t ruin my life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlZcHwsa6CU

Apparently, however, jobseekers are a little slower in using these tools.  As someone who is looking for work and who very much is using social networks as part of  promoting Brand Beckett,   I can vouch that I am having success combining these with more “traditional” approaches. Though obviously, I hear you say, not so much success you’ve actually secured a job (still open to ideas if you hear  of any).  I’d like to believe, however, that this  more a reflection of the state of my erstwhile industry, Recruitment Communications, and my focus on transferring my skills to the Charity /Not for Profit sector.   You’ll know if you’ve read my LinkedIn profile that I’m currently doing digital comms roles for two charities on a voluntary basis. Both were via online sources (one the Guardian, one as a result of setting up Google Alerts), both required almost as full a selection process as a waged role. Both have led to me being invited to manage the Charity/Not for Profit subgroup  set up on LinkedIn by Only Marketing Jobs.  Which is in turn leading to some interesting connections….You get the picture!  

I’ve also, despite initial cynicism, applied the same network building techniques on Twitter to my own account that I have used to build up the FairtradeLondon following.  And sure enough,  I have been directly approached about a part time marketing role, and have had a couple of interesting folk wanting to “keep in touch” about possiblities in the future.  So, it can work.  Though it can also be time consuming.

No matter how much time you want to dedicate to this, there are some clear tips to getting the best out of the most popular Social Networks.  This video produced by DWP, once you get over the supposedly lighthearted use of a sock puppet, does have some sound advice:

http://tinyurl.com/q8ps43
And this article from the New  York Times is a good case study of how to target your approach for a specific job:

http://tinyurl.com/ppu464