When the IPA published their report on Social Media Futures recently, they caused quite a bit of kerfuffle (I love the word kerfuffle) by publishing it in a distinctly non-social way and by running an event which failed to connect with many of the assembled social-media-savvy digerati. The IPA could have ignored the bad reviews, the critical tweets, but they didn't. Nigel Gwilliam immediately engaged with the fall out by commenting on posts, and inviting people to meet up with him to share their views in person. So I went along. Mostly because they seemed to be making a genuine effort to engage and understand. So respect to Nigel.
John, Graeme, Graeme and a few others had shipped up too. I seem to remember that at the meeting I said that if they were serious about wanting to engage social-media-types in marketing and advertising (is there a collective name?) then they should start a blog, get on twitter, stick the presentation up on slideshare and generally get stuck in. So Nigel has started a blog, got on twitter, and stuck the presentation up on Slideshare. So respect to Nigel.
The original intention of the report was to develop a wider understanding of "social media in a brand communications and broader business context" amongst the IPA's members and audience. This is no bad thing. And who knows, having the badge of the IPA on it may just help make change happen quicker. So Nigel is now inviting contributions from the community and has posted a brief on his blog for creating "a space where the social media agency community can create what follows (or supersedes) the IPA Social Media Report in people's learning". Go take a look.
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