Twitter

It is drummed into us from a young age that if we are hungry we should eat a proper meal, not a chocolate bar. We’re taught this in order to keep our bodies healthy but do we know how to keep our mind healthy?

I recently attended an interesting talk where the effect of social media on mental well-being was discussed. The idea was being put forward that the positive feedback people receive through social media forums such as Facebook and Twitter (e.g. ‘likes’, comments or retweets) could contribute to better mental well-being as people said, when interviewed shortly after receiving the feedback, that these interactions gave them positive feelings.

However, this got me thinking and I wondered how these people felt a while later. Was this feedback enough to fulfil their needs for social contact or were they left feeling a bit low and wanting more?

I personally feel that the positive feelings that a person receives from a social media interaction can be much like the sugar rush that they would get from a chocolate bar. They think that it will be what they want, but soon after the high of getting it they realise they have not solved their hunger. In terms of food, we then know that it is a proper meal we need. However, had we not been taught this would we have simply gone for another chocolate bar? I feel that this could potentially be the harmful cycle that many people, particularly those who are less outgoing, may go through each day. Prior to the influx of social media they would have invested their time in interacting in ‘real world’ relationships. However, I wonder if many people may now be reaching out to social media channels as the easy option to try and gain that social contact that people need to stay happy. The concern is that they are then not being fulfilled by the results and perhaps can’t break the cycle of looking for their social fulfilment online. With the statistics for depression set to rise further over the coming years I feel that social media could potentially have a part to play in this.

Obviously there are marginalised groups of people for whom the world of social media is a genuine lifeline to gaining social contact. However, I feel that for the majority of people this is not the case and it could easily be that social media is resulting in as many low feelings as it is highs.

I think that social media has a role to play in peoples mental well-being, which could be both in a positive and negative way. However, this is essentially an online world that we have created and I think that healthy and unhealthy behaviour surrounding social media is something that needs to be brought the forefront. People live out their lives online more and more every day and it seems that this can only be set to be an increasingly current debate.

On November 18th, Foviance presented at the Digital Fundraising conference 2010. The event included a number of insightful talks providing ideas, insight and case studies of amazing fundraising efforts that have been successful online. Along with Catriona Campbell, I helped chair the afternoon sessions. These focused on providing details of how the digital space could be used to maximise fundraising opportunities online and they really did demonstrate roaring success. Read more…

A multi-channel world creates more routes for complaint about products and services every day. As each new platform evolves, so our avenues of complaint are broadening from purely manual actions to largely virtual ones.

It’s still possible to let our views be known manually through a letter or even face-to-face if we so desire. Most of us are perhaps more familiar with expressing opinions via electronic channels, such as telephone, fax, e-mail, forums or blogs. But now more people than ever before are also venting their spleens on digital or mobile platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, TripAdvisor –even FourSquare, Google Maps, and in the future on emerging applications such as augmented reality. Read more…

1) Remember to charge up your battery the night before if you’re going to be doing a lot of tweeting the next day, or buy an extra battery (remember to charge that one up too).

2) First ever tweet: it’s okay to tweet ‘hi’ or about the weather. Don’t listen to everyone telling you to be interesting – it’s too difficult. You’ll get the hang of it soon anyway. Remember though that your mother, cousin or friend in Australia, might still like to receive the odd letter now and again. It’s nice to get something apart from bills or credit card applications. Read more…

By Billie Andersen

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. Read more…

By Billie Andersen

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. Read more…

Recently I’ve been thinking about the impact Twitter has had on how time is viewed from a customer service perspective.

Companies continually strive to achieve greater levels of efficiencies, extracting what insightful nuggets they can through the detailed analysis of call volumes, first time fixes, abandonment rates, average handling times and more. Customers on the other hand, armed with increasing ubiquitous smartphones and a rich plethora of tools for self-expression, are becoming ever more vocal and more demanding. Read more…

By Billie Andersen

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. Read more…