http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog Social media, Web 2.0 and online communities Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:35:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Image by Scoobymoo via Flickr A lot of people are excited about social media and think it could have a hugely positive impact on their brand, their marketing and communications, the insight they get, the way in which they deal with customer service and many other benefits it ... http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/03/the-seven-harsh-realities-of-social-media-for-any-brand/ [caption id="attachment_2156" align="alignright" width="300" caption="image from shutterstock"][/caption] Social gaming is a hot topic here at SXSW. The industry has been growing at an incredible rate and traditional gaming companies have been caught unaware by a flurry of new market entrants. Playfish was one of the 2009 success stories. Within two years of ... http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/03/social-gaming-sxsw-panel/ Another day at SXSW, and a good seminar on crowd sourcing and not-for-profits. The 'Crowd sourcing innovative social change' session saw Amy Sample Ward, Beth Kanter and others talking about how to use crowd sourcing in a not-for-profit environment, not for fund raising or marketing, but for service and programme ... http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/03/sxsw-10-session-notes-crowd-sourcing-innovative-social-change/ Day Two of SXSW and one of the most interesting sessions we've been to so far was 'Can the Real-Time Web Be Realized?' including Brett Slatkin from Google, Dare Obasanjo from Microsoft and Scott Raymond from Gowalla among others. Rather than regurgitate the content of the session, we've included our ... http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/03/sxsw-10-session-notes-can-the-real-time-web-be-realized/ [caption id="attachment_2127" align="alignright" width="300" caption="SXSW image by benjamin ellis"][/caption] This week I'm going to be reporting from the South by South West Interactive (SXSWi) festival in Austin Texas. SXSW is World's largest digital and interactive festival/trade-show/conference/party/event/get-together. Around 20,000 people will be joining me in Austin to uncover the latest thinking in ... http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/03/sxsw-and-the-uk-digital-mission/