The following video is taken from the rushes of the BBC documentary The Virtual Revolution, presented by Aleks Krotoski.

It’s great to have access to this unpolished video and also to hear Mr Fry’s comment

”..let’s get real about this. Connection is what humans crave, it’s what we are all about, it’s something that separates us from animals. It even comes before … language, because language is an example of … a neural technology that we have created to answer this need for connection. We are the social animal par excellence.”

Great minds and all that! —-> http://www.peteshannon.com/post/199164244/when-will-they-stop-talking-about-the-toolkit

This is an ongoing story similar to the last post about sodapopstop.com but subtly different.

This isn’t a video about personal branding but about providing information and opening up to your niche customers.

I’m sure that Duncan Page is a great bloke and is passionate about his industry in his own quiet way but it is his knowledge rather than his passion that he has exploited to market his products using social media.

It’s also a demonstration of the fact that there can be a real lack of awareness in using social tools in SMEs - Duncan had clearly been lucky to have a relationship with an agency and to be led by the hand by this agency to get the ball rolling as it is now.

I tweeted this video quite a few months ago but forgot to upload it here.

John Nese from www.sodapopstop.com knows his niche. He is honest, true, transparent. After 2 mins of this video I TRUST him. This video demonstrates the importance of being an engaging guy who knows his stuff and is enthusiastic about it (true ‘personal brand’ in horrible industry speak), not the importance of social media. It just so happens that social media could be used to highlight these traits and develop his business.

Sodapopstop.com could rev up the social media engines far further than it does at the moment, and there’s not much need for explanation as to why this might work well. Once you watch the video I hope you’ll see what I mean.

John Nese could perhaps wrap up the soda niche as comprehensively as winelibrary.tv has for wine. If he wanted to. No doubt you may be able to find social media companies online that will analyse what this guy should do, but I get the feeling that he may be quite happy as he is - don’t you?

Just a little thought…

Are you scared like your mum’s grandma was?

Grandma: “What’s that odd thing on the wall and what do you do when it makes that shrill ringing sound?”

Grand-daughter Ethel: “Pick it up and talk, grandma!”

Grandma: “But what do I say to it?”

Right now if you’re not engaging with, or even just listening to, your customers using social media then you are being grandma. She had the opportunity to speak with cousin Alice 100 miles away but wasn’t sure of the etiquette.

We all have access to social media tools now and it should be obvious what to say and how to say it. If you were talking to a customer face-to-face what would you say? How would you interact to develop a relationship and meet their needs? Well that’s exactly how you’d engage in social media.

Pick up the phone!