Paul Fabretti › Comments

"@mark i’m glad to see someone else taking the same sensible steps. It is interesting that the more “engagement work we get involved with, the more this stuff lends itself to PR’s business model of ongoing retainer work. That’s not to call it a mercenary chase for “safe”, regular money, but anybody can build stuff…it’s the ongoing dialogue that is what REALLY matters to people. @Rob, if that’s a lucid response, I can’t wait for something coherent. I totally agree with you. It’s way too easy for any muppet to quote the same crap time and again without ever getting into any details of either what they are going to do, what experience they have of it and especially, what possible benefit it will have." - Paul Fabretti

"Dearest Mulleycorp It would appear that your internet blogsite is not optimised for today’s consumer. You should be aware that these days, the customer is in control and as such, consumers no longer listen to your brand messages – this isn’t about Push communications any more. As a extremely well known internet blogger, I would be happy to offer you my extremely well-resented experience and knowledge and tell all my foolowers how you have seen sense and decided to employ me for the small sum of… £1 million dollars… I shall provide my bank details forthwith and look forward to not doing much for the next few months. Love and best wishes Paul “how to earn a million dollars using Twitter, 5 seconds a day” Fabretti. p.s. My new ebook “How to earn a million dollars using Twitter, 5 seconds a day” Fabretti will be out soon at all good bookstores and many, many crap ebook directories…" - Paul Fabretti

this chap waffles a lot - Paul Fabretti

I really like this piece. Is the influence of crowds affecting out personalities? - Paul Fabretti

This is a really big deal. MySpace's biggest weakness is that, other than adding yourself to a profile, leaving someone a wall message, adding some customisation to your profile and some music - there is little else to do there. With MySpace beginning to focus MUCH more on music, they are opening up a whole new way to learn more about their own user by importing all the data that Facebook have on their audience. - Paul Fabretti

You telling me you don't need information like this?!! - Paul Fabretti

The funniest email exhange since a chap tried to settle an outstanding bill with the drawing of a spide. - Paul Fabretti

Neville make sa good point - it's far easier to talk a good game with social media and quite another to live it. - Paul Fabretti

"Missing blogger’s first name = Stefanos. The boat sailed from Port number 46. A Star Ben Smith. #Nokia #OnlineAsItHappens http://bit.ly/3gahcC" - Paul Fabretti

Interesting stuff...thanks for sharing - Hugo Guzman

Just found this... great stuff! - Gerd Leonhard

"I notice you refer to how they “managed to upset London’s creative agencies in the process”. Perhaps if they had considered some of the (cheaper) but no less talented agencies in the North, they wouldn’t have felt the need to do this… …a plumber from Barnsley indeed…I am shocked that Unilever have managed to get this so dramamtically wrong. How can you crowdsource something from what is (as you say), effectively a creative community website? Why didn’t they create an application on Facebook for example? In fact, Unilever, drop me a line. I’m based in The North – i know, but I will travel if that scares you and we can talk about how you can achieve the same effect and have your ideas developed from the very people to whom your product is aimed…rather than the creatives who would eventually execute that idea anyway… Love Paul" - Paul Fabretti

Link building services. SEO company. Directory Submission - Get 7000+ Guaranteed One-Way Links. Top ranking - Paul Fabretti

"That's a really nicely put statement Robin. Credibility comes not from jumping on the bandwagon, but basing decisions on the adoption of those social technologies which will derive the most benefit for both parties. I think one of the biggest and most interesting shifts will be the way that businesses adapt and implement social technologies in their working practice (Google Wave replacing Basecamp or email for example). Remember what happened when people realised that they could replace the office round-robin (no pun intended!) memorandum with a group email...now it is second nature. I look forward to seeing what you guys are up to." - Paul Fabretti

"A real loss - I’m really sad that Riya didn’t make it -after the awesome start that Tara helped create it as well as the shopping “engine”, it was a fantastic service. Why didn’t the tech get licensed to the Apple’s, Picasa’s and Photobucket though? A big concern for many (including me) is that they announce the closure with no image export facilities - with a suggestive note at the bottom of the email that they MIGHT be able to help. I sincerely hope they honour this. Their credibility remains very high with those people I know who also use the service. Best wishes to all the guys for their future plans though." - Paul Fabretti

"AHA! Monsieur Daring - you are too clever by half - didn’t think it would have been appropriate to swear in 60pt in front of 60-odd strangers! Listening to me for half an hour was bad enough! The suspense was funny though! You could hear people murmuring about “he’s not going to do it is he”!! At least it gave then *something* to talk about!" - Paul Fabretti

"@Tim - I know what you mean mate. Your post had some great links in which has kept me up late at night trying to get my head around. As a non-scientific type, whilst this is all hugely interesting, I fear I need to go back to Comprehensive and re-visit some of my maths to understand all of it! That said, I totally agree with you angle (think I alluded to it in my comment on your blog). It is perhaps not the person at the heart of the community that has the potential to be the most “viral” (if that doesn’t get me struck down by the social media gods). Mat’s work on the opml is really interesting - just a shame there aren’t more people taking part in it - worth putting something out there? Mat, could you handle more people at this stage of your research? @Mat - thanks for the Vizster link. Agreed, Nexus is not that much different to it. Looking at it though, the mouse-overs of the connectivity and linkage are really useful - saves a lot of hassle. Crap news on the Pages business though..." - Paul Fabretti

Robin’s chart below had some interesting stats about a huge surge in Facebook traffic last month when Facebook launched the vanity URL’s. Traffic to the site was up 9.5% on the previous Sunday. - Paul Fabretti

"@stuart – I totally agree with you there Stuart. Often, the bigger the node (certainly with the influencer analysis anyway), the more protected and less likely to respond it is. Is the trick therefore, to try and agitate the periphery to create the groundswell the chief node can’t ignore?" - Paul Fabretti

"and I think you’ve passed the test nicely! Keep up the good work!" - Paul Fabretti

This is one of the most exciting events I have seen. I received this invitation to attend the Pepsi Brandhack. Main problem is I’m in the UK, the brandhack is in the US…shame. The UK would benefit from something like this - and I don’t just - Paul Fabretti

I was lucky enough to get a free ticket to this Sunday’s Travelling Geeks even on Sunday 5th July in London. My travel arrangements are - Paul Fabretti

"@Dave - from the looks of the video, you can change the size of the virtual box through the web interface. Still not entirely sure if the printed image needs to be visible or if it simply is the trigger for the software to kick in? @Rob - i have a feeling I know who/where you’re talking about! Admittedly, the technology is perhaps limiting, but it’s not like webcams aren’t 10-a-penny anyway. Now, thinking of MAG…wonder if there was a way that this could be used by passengers to see if their hand-luggage was too big to fit on-board before they travelled…saving time and effort for everyone…you can have that one for free @nick - cheers for stopping by and thanks for the heads-up (no pun intended). A great idea and something which has just sparked a great idea for a client of mine too!" - Paul Fabretti

A couple of weeks ago I posted about how good BMW’s new ads were with their inclusion of augmented reality to promote the new Z4. All well and good you might - Paul Fabretti

Pro tip - to share stuff from the web that includes pictures add the FriendFeed Bookmarklet to your browser: http://friendfeed.com/share... - Martin Bryant

I joined the Ning group but would rather use FF - Louise Bolotin

"@mark- - hey buddy, cheers for the thinking! Feel like I’ve got a business plan developing in the public eye. Would that be a first? at least then, the very people to whom it is aimed can tailor the service to what they like I guess! I totally agree with you on the cost front. The facilities and community benefits (whichever ones pull everybody’s strings) would have to be compelling enough for people to want to pay to leave their homes, although I am pretty sure that the drop-in aspect would be pretty popular. At the same time, there’s plenty of scope to provide a start-up environment which could be charged at higher than freelancer rates for additional support (which in turn secures the residency for longer but indirectly subsidises the freelancers costs a little bit). In terms of costs, I think that holding paid-for events or providing outside businesses with a place to come and hold their own small events (paid for) will also help pay for the fixed costs. Nice in principle but not..." - Paul Fabretti

I’ve been threatening to post something for a while now on the elements of a “proper” Twitter strategy. Which, amongst the plethora of tools, should you - Paul Fabretti

"Hey Mark, thanks for your thoughts. Very interesting that you’ve already taken a look at this. As I alluded to in my post, there is some distance left in the Agency route, although I’m not sure how receptive the freelancers would be to “corporate” involvement. That said, I wonder if/how the agencies the freelancers would work for might get involved. Might help with the ongoing costs. Equally, outside event/seminar hosting would help subsidise costs? One to ponder!" - Paul Fabretti

"@Ross - know what you mean about perhaps not needing the £25k and very true - I could perhaps see a way for the agencies to take part without necessarily needing to be a part of it. As nice “in principle” as it would be that all members of the community would/could help each other, the reality would be that they would still rely on agencies fill ALL of their time. To preclude them completely might be a risk. @Lee totally agree on environment mate. The picture above (which I should have credited to Tara at Citizen Agency, whose Citizen Space is the inspiration behind the idea!)is exactly the kind of place I had in mind, but I guess the functionality or model for how the co-working space would and should work re: needing conference space too, should not be governed by how it looks. That said, a well-lit, convenient, relaxed, peaceful (well, peaceful-ish!) chilled and friendly atmosphere are core to it. Ultimately, a bunch of people who might only know each other’s Twitter ID’s would..." - Paul Fabretti

"@Paul, agree with you on all counts mate. Think it would benefit everybody apart from the recruitment agencies! Brighton have one called The Werks (http://thewerks.org.uk/space). The only thing that surprises me about The Werks, is that there aren’t more of them, especially with Brighton being such a hive of digital innovation. Manchester to be fair DOES have something called OpenSpace (http://www.openspace.coop/locatio...) and Fly The Coop (http://www.flythecoop.co.uk/...) which seem to offer something similar - although Fly the Coop seems to have a more collaborative “problem-solving” angle whereas Open Space seems to be the closest to what I am thinking about. What I have in mind though is to make the space as much of a meeting place for events that freelancer’s clients may want to hold seminars in - the idea being that holding events would subsidise the monthly cost of having the space in the most convenient location for freelancers. @Justin , thanks again for stopping by I..." - Paul Fabretti

"Hey Stuart, thanks for stopping by! Head of Digital at a Manchester agency and we’ve never met yet…we’ll have to remedy that one soon! I’d like to think that the growing pool of talent would be one of the biggest draws for agencies to this concept. Far from trying to “be” an agency in itself it would merely provide a base for all the freelancers you would ever need - where the freelancers themselves can learn and share ideas - making them ultimately, more employable The other benefit is that it is direct - no agencies, saving you money and time!" - Paul Fabretti