The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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Social Buzz Interview: Head Judge Paul Fabretti

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By Craig McGill, MD/Creative Guy

July 20, 2012 | 10 min read

With just under two weeks to get your entries in for the Social Buzz Awards, we thought we'd ask Head JudgePaul Fabretti for his thoughts on all things social media related. If you have any questions for Paul, feel free to leave them below or you can find him on Twitter at @paulfabretti and add in the #buzzawards hashtag.

And on with the Qs...

What got you into social media?

I'd started an online bathroom business in 2005 and we needed a way to establish our credibility and trustworthiness. Social media at the time was a very different environment back then, but social media channels quickly helped us prove our expertise in the sector.

Who does it well - either as an individual or company?

I think it depends on what you're looking at. For thought leadership, Brian Solis and Jeremiah Owyang have it down to a "T" - they are constantly pushing the agenda and quantifying this with research. In the UK, Stephen Waddington is a great example. He's omnipresent but always either adding value or leading industry debate. Businesses I admire are the small ones who put social at the heart of the way they communicate, so people like Illegal Jacks in Scotland or BrewDog. On a bigger scale, you can't fail to admire what Ford are doing - constantly looking to evolve and innovate, but always with customer value at the heart.

Is it for every business?

It IS, but to varying degrees and again, depends on the sector in which you operate. An industrial engineering company may not see a great benefit to being on Twitter and Facebook, but most certainly would be able to demonstrate their expertise and research credentials for example, through a blog and via video.

Is there a lot of snake oil about over social media?

Absolutely, but those who achieve success don't need to worry. The results/impact and case studies speak for themselves. It's no different to the SEO industry a few years ago - few people understood it and there was a lot of confusion about what people were actually buying. Social media is no different. As more clients see more results, they will see through those people who can't qualify their activity.

There’s an old argument that PR/marketing/advertising should own social media - should any of them?

Social Media for me is all about reputation - one wrong word, status or reply can have a dramatic impact on the company's reputation. In this instance, those people who best understand the impact of words are best placed to manage the social media presence - which is PR. That said, specialist innovative and creative expertise are most certainly crucial elements to social media - so integration is so, so important.

Why is there such a fear over traditional ROI? Surely it’s the best metric to be using?

My feeling is that it's because social media is a digital platform and digital is totally measurable (and in most cases have a determinable ROI) that there is an expectation to generate a similar immediate return number. Social media is the awkward middle ground between advertising (using words online) and digital (completely measurable) - and we're only just beginning to learn how to measure words and turn them into numbers that can be attributable to a return.

What are your favourite social media sites?

Based on the amount of time that I spend on them, Twitter and Facebook! Twitter's evolved "discover" tab has got me spending much more time on there and away from my feed reader.

In your eyes, what’s the biggest barrier to adoption of social media? And how would you tell people/firms to overcome this?

Lack of awareness/understanding of the platforms and metrics. Motivation, broadcast and consumption habits are very different on all the main social network channels and the lack of understanding of this means that often, the channels are not being used to their best effect. Likewise, a lack of objectives and understanding of what metrics determine success mean that the impact is poorly evaluated.

If you had to choose one platform - for you personally - what would it be and why?


Twitter - it's much more the just the pulse of the internet and has fundamentally (and cleverly) changed the way we communicate.

What’s the can’t live without App on your Smartphone (and what make is the phone)?

Can't live without app on my 
iPhone4 (other than FB and Twitter!) would have to be Strava Cycling. It's a really smart cycling app that automatically breaks up routes into mini-challenges and creates league tables for those routes based on other's who have ridden them.

What’s the must-have Apps on your tablet (and, again, what make is it)?

I have a Kindle Fire from the US so I don't have any apps on it (yet!)

What motivates you when you’re down/seeking creativity - what’s the one thing that gets the brain going when you have to dig deep?

Getting outside, walking, exploring, riding or scouring my feed reader for innovative/creative ideas. I follow a huge amount of non-social media design and style blogs who constantly bring great ideas to the surface.

Given that the way most social media institutions - Facebook, Google, Twitter - are making their money is through the most traditional of ways - advertising - is this a failure of thinking? Surely if social media is such a paradigm shift, we wouldn’t be relying on advertising just like we have done since 1955?


Far from it - this has always been the (clever) plan - the platforms allow people to do what as humans, we instinctively do - share, exchange, show-off etc. The objective of advertising (the right message to the right person at the right time) is as true in social media as any other medium, except that on "the big 3" this can be improved dramatically by context. The platforms just needed a) the critical mass and b) the right ways to sensitively deliver contextually-relevant ads. That said, just because we haven't necessarily nailed an ROI figure doesn't mean that value can't be attributed to social media activity.

Should the phrase “social media” be abolished as there is so much to it - it can be linkbuilding, community engagement, community building, sales, SEO, blogging, gathering and seeding visual information - should we be at a stage now where people get to specify what part of this their talents lie in?


Social media for me is a term which merely describe the platforms and tools we use. Any specific activities involved in the delivery of activity to social media seem naturally to fit into this social media remit. The bigger challenge I see, is how people can integrate the other activities that are not part of their core job now into that role (seo, technical). 


Companies seem to be concentrating their efforts on Facebook - is this a dangerous move?


Yes and No. There is fantastic innovation to be had with Facebook but it is unpredictable and constantly pushing the boundaries of what both brands and consumers are finding acceptable. Look at the fundamental impact that timeline has had on brand's pages - for years it was all about fans, then within a month, it was all about engagement. For consumers, frictionless sharing and the use of your data/content in ways many don't expect is a big risk. 


A huge element of social media seems to be based around customer satisfaction but should companies - and customers - accept that you won’t always get it your own way?


Absolutely - i'm a big believer that social media channels merely allow us to do online what we do offline - and we don't always get what we want on both sides of the fence. The biggest problem has been the tone and manners of the approach (more often than not) that brands take to these channels. Not giving in to a consumer who may be wrong is not a bad thing to do, but the manner and understanding of the impact of how you do it is essential. 


Where do you see social media being in five years time?

Seamlessly integrated into both mobile and the web experience. web-based platforms as we know them will continue to thrive (we've simply invested too much time in them), but location-based services, doing the same activities via mobile as web and mobile payment are where it's going.


For those thinking of getting into social media, any tips or pointers?

• Understand it's not just about the platforms - core communication and people skills are essential

• Be flexible - look at how the platforms have evolved - you need to at the very least have a grasp of what the changes mean to you. We've moved from blogs, to Twitter, to Facebook, to mobile in just 5 years all requiring different elements of understanding of the technology involved.

Previous Social Buzz Interviews

Social Buzz Judge Jae Hopkins

Holyrood PR boss Scott Douglas

Social Media Author Guy Clappterton

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