Earlier on Twitter I posted that the social media ban on volunteers at the Olympics is idiotic. Let me explain why: 1. It’s a huge missed opportunity. Imagine if the organisers had decided to embrace social media from the volunteers. Imagine the moments that would be captured that couldn’t have ever been captured by the [...]
Author Archives
Lately, I’ve been talking to people about five major shifts that I see happening. Each is big enough to warrant a post of its own, so over the next few days I’ll write about each individually, and then write a post about what it means to think of them in combination. I’ll link to all [...]
One of the most common set of questions I’m asked by people trying to understand the rise of the social web, and how it will impact their business is: Is Facebook a fad? Why do people spend so much time using it? How does Facebook work? Why are businesses on it? In almost all cases [...]
As I read, watch and listen to other people describe the changes in our industry, I’m consistently seeing two problems: – Not enough people are recognizing that the web is being fundamentally rebuilt around people, and that this is going to change how all of us do business. – Too many of the people who [...]
When I talk about how how social networks are structured, certain things always resonate with people. One of these is that although the average Facebook user has 130 friends, they only communicate directly with four of those people in any given week. Direct communication includes likes and comments on their posts, posts on their wall, [...]
We’ve been conditioned to think about destinations for our marketing activity. Our physical store, our website, our micro-site, our e-commerce site. Many ad dollars are spent on driving traffic to specific destinations, where we’re confronted with a very controlled experience designed to elicit specific reactions and build specific perceptions and associations. This has been especially [...]
Many people ask me for tips on being successful on the Facebook platform. There are many answers to this question, but for the most part, people don’t need tactical tips, they need to change their whole approach. Over the past 50 years, the advertising industry has taught us to think about campaigns. One off efforts [...]
We are experiencing the sixth great communication transformation brought about by new technology. Each transformation dramatically changed our perception of our world, and each was initially misunderstood. With each transformation, people made the same mistake. They looked at the new medium, and applied their ways of working with existing media to the new medium. The first [...]
More than once in the past I’ve been criticized for over-simplifying and over-generalizing research findings and for making bold claims that go beyond the scope of the research. But I’ve continued to do it, because I think when done correctly, it’s the best way to get people to act on the insight you generate. I’ve [...]
Grouped is about to hit the shelves so I thought it timely to explain why I wrote the book. Some people may be surprised to learn that Grouped is a short book – roughly 160 pages. It should take no more than 2-3 hours to read. As anyone who needs to write for a living [...]
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A personal blog about social interaction, design + advertising by Paul Adams. Paul is the Global Head of Brand Design at Facebook, and author of Grouped.
