Billie Andersen

Billie's bio

Billie Andersen became interested in human involvement with technology during her undergraduate degree in Artificial Intelligence and then consolidated her knowledge of HCI and innovative systems with a Masters degree in Human-Centred Computer Systems. She has been with Foviance for over two years working on extremely successful projects across sectors, specialising in Retail and Finance.

“During my masters I chose to specialise in social media due to my fascination in how people communicate, and I have spoken on the subject at the Usability Professionals Association conference. Since my time at Foviance I have also become interested in alternative research methodologies and have developed expertise in remote testing.”

The 2008 American presidential election was ground-breaking for a number of reasons; notably that it was the first ‘social media election’. Then in 2009 came the controversial Iranian election where social media played a different, but debatably equally important role. Social media is set to play an equally important role in the upcoming UK election. The question however, is whether the potential of such channels will be realised by any of the parties. (more…)

Even if you’re not a Facebook addict or regular Twitter user, you’ll know how difficult it is to escape social media. Why? Because social media is revolutionising the way that people consume content.

Social media is opening new channels of communication between brands and customers and there is a lot of potential in the social web that marketers can tap into. For example, a study earlier in the year by Penn State University showed that 20% of all tweets mentioned a brand name. Sales and marketing professionals need to be aware of these significant media consumption trends so they can tailor and target their messages as effectively as possible across a changing landscape. (more…)

Social networking and technology, such as mobile and computers, are very much an item these days but it’s still not clear exactly who ‘wears the trousers’ in this passionate relationship. The rise in popularity of social networking is fundamentally changing the development of technology. But in its turn, emerging technologies are continuing to shape the ways in which we communicate and use social networking. (more…)

There’s probably very few people who would have missed the travel disruption caused by a certain misbehaving volcano grounding planes in the northern hemisphere and turning airports into ghost towns or hotels. Thrown into the mix there are confusing accounts of which flights have and have not been cancelled and when airports will be closed, all being made worse by a second eruption. Due to the high volume of people trying to reschedule travel arrangements, websites have been breaking left, right and centre and call centres have been inundated, making the whole process an administrative nightmare. (more…)

Johannes Leonardo has launched a mysterious and (potentially) engaging social advertising campaign around New York and it will be interesting to see how New Yorkers respond to it. (more…)

At an event for Social Media Week London last week, a question was raised over whether responding to people on Twitter and similar social media sites would encourage more customers to air their complaints in public. In my opinion, the answer is that it probably does, particularly if people see others being responded to effectively. However, this should not be a reason to ignore disgruntled customers. People will still have their grievance, whether or not they choose to voice it. (more…)

An article was published the other day that questioned how worthwhile it was for companies to spend money on social media , in light of a new report that discussed the predicted increase in social media spend in 2010. According to the article, companies have spent more time on social media this year than ever before and that more companies are focusing on this medium as a marketing strategy.  
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Social media adoption promises plenty of positive benefits to modern businesses. It is simple, quick, cost-effective, and can help organisations to reach out and collaborate with wide audiences in a variety of interactive forms that simply can’t be achieved through direct communications. Forrester Research analysts predict that by 2010, 82% of all companies will be using social media marketing. Unfortunately there are now too many companies trying their hand at social media without a well thought through strategy. They are blindly jumping on the social media bandwagon without any clear understanding of how to implement it. Companies need to take a step back and plan sound social media strategies as they would any other projects they choose to undertake.
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