Twitter is no longer a tool for the ‘self-absorbed’, says iomart marketing director Phil Worms

“Harry has sent his design to Boeing by post and received a typical ‘thank you but no thanks’ process driven response by return. Harry’s father turned to social media and his own blog to highlight Boeing’s corporate tone of voice to an eight year old. The twittersphere took the issue to its heart and Boeing suddenly found itself caught in the headlights, totally unprepared for the reaction. After a shaky start, they turned the issue around and won many plaudits, with Harry’s father stating: ‘It was just so cool to see a company become kind of human.’”

He suggested that while this might seem like some archaic anecdote, but the issue it highlights is still around today.

“Perhaps the biggest change that we’ve witnessed over the past year in the social media landscape is that organisations of all sizes are now genuinely considering how best to deliver an effective social media strategy, and in response, the platforms are now vigorously pursuing their monetisation strategies. It will be interesting to see how Facebook’s ‘Buy’ button works out, Instagram’s in-feed video advertising, Twitter’s business new fee structure enabling pay for performance-based actions rather than simple retweets or clicks. Or will we witness an end user backlash and we all rush to join Ello with its promise of an ad free social experience?

“As a cloud provider, we will await the additional users, transactions and usage bursts with interest. Cloud computing currently providing the ‘picks and shovels’ to build and host the technology platforms on which social networks run but we will see its role become more prominent over the next few years as we see the evolution of the human cloud.”

When asked why iomart, as a cloud computing company, sponsored the Social Buzz Awards, Worms paid tribute to the role what social plays in the everyday life of everyone.

“Many of our customers operate social, big data and marketing platforms and we obviously support their IT and digital teams to ensure that they are available 24 hours per day. Sponsoring the awards gives iomart the opportunity to step away from the technical layer to recognise the expertise of the end users generating the content on these platforms.”

He added: “Gradually, social networking is impacting upon every role, in every kind of company, and it’s changing the rules of the marketplace. It’s still relatively in its infancy and no one can say with any certainty which platforms will be the winners and which ones will be overtaken, but it’s already clear that it is not a fad and that companies need to embrace it whether they feel comfortable with it or not.”

Worms noted that Twitter has changed from being viewed simply as a tool for the ‘self-absorbed’ to note what they were doing and feeling every day to something much more powerful which can share globally messages from companies and messages for the greater good.

“There is far more to social media than simply reducing it to a platform for egotists to tell the world ‘what coffee they chose from Starbucks that morning’ and by offering creditable awards it enables the industry to celebrate excellence and achievement in this field. All of the nominees for this year’s Social Buzz Awards have shown that you can achieve ROI, attain real engagement, enhance brand values and reach new audiences through classic marketing and campaign disciplines using social media, and that rather than dismiss it we should be embracing their examples and learning from them.”

The Social Buzz Awards take place at the Marriott Grosvenor Square on Thursday, 27 November. Tickets are now available.