Your life story is being told by the digital content you produce
One of the downsides of our digital lifestyle is that we simply can’t retain the information that passes through it.
I couldn’t tell you what I tweeted last week, much less a year ago.
Digital storage is changing our memories. We don’t need to remember specifics anymore – we know they are in the cloud somewhere. Searchable if we want retrieval.
This has risks, as we forget the experiences and learning that shaped where we are today.
Last week I was reminded by Timehop that I’d missed the 3rd anniversary of Bromford on Twitter.
Timehop – in case you don’t know – is an app that sends users a daily reminder of moments from their social media past. A digital flashback.
It isn’t a new app but popularity has been boosted by trends like Throwback Thursday (or #TBT) in which people share memories from across the social web.
It’s quite a novelty for people like me. I get reminders of photos I don’t remember taking, never mind posting.
But 3 years of Bromford as a social business? Is that all? It feels like a lifetime..
I’ve met more new and fascinating people in the past three years that I did in the previous 10 – and that’s purely down to professional (and unprofessional) use of social networking.
We should never forget our journey and the people who helped us on our way.
So this post is my personal digital throwback. A timehop through the past three years that brings together some significant posts and slide decks.
Christmas 2011 – Our first baby steps
This post in which I picked my Bromford highlights of the year sees the emergence of key themes I still bang on about today. Losing the fear factor. Digital leadership. CEO visibility. I’d say transformation is nigh on impossible without those three things.
Spring 2012 – A Social Future
Summer 2012 – Our first social media birthday
“12 months ago – nobody had access to social media at Bromford. Today everybody does. Unrestricted.
My hybrid work/personal twitter account @paulbromford was created exactly 1 year ago. Our Facebook pages opened 1 year ago. Our 1st blog appeared 1 year ago.
We still have no policy as such. There is no big list of rules. It’s a system run on trust and common sense rather than rules and procedure”
Think that says it all. But you can find more in this post capturing the six lessons we learnt in our first 12 months.
Christmas 2012 – Myths from the year Housing went social
This attempted to sum up learning – and bust some myths. Here’s my favourite:
“Myth: Our Customers Are Not Online
I knew this to be false when a Customer Board Member emailed me to say they didn’t have internet access. People are online, but they often choose not to tell their landlord. And sometimes they don’t even realise they are online. A customer recently told me they didn’t need broadband as they only ever used Facebook. Although I don’t deny that exclusion exists – the emerging issue is digital literacy and confidence rather than lack of access.”
Spring 2013 – 20 Things They Never Told Us About Going Social
Originally presented at Housing Goes Digital – this slide deck represents my greatest learning: Keep it simple. Keep it short. Make it fun.
With nearly 90,000 views it’s also my most successful post about social media – by far.
Summer 2013 – Five Unexpected Benefits Of Being A Social Organisation
This post , for Comms2Point0 , gives an overview of the cultural change that has happened at Bromford.
Here’s a quote:
“You Start Talking Like Normal People
Social transforms the organisation’s tone of voice.
Our workplace language has been developed through years of formality – the daily grind of reports and emails. And without us knowing it we passed our jargon on to our customers.
But if you start talking like that in the social space – you look a bit odd. Real people don’t talk about Stakeholders and Efficiencies.
So you start talking you do in real life. Because social is real life. And your customers will love you for it.”
Winter 2013 – How social helps us cross organisational borders
This post – on the rise of super-connectors – points to a future of new possibilities. A time where we have moved beyond talking about social media and concentrate more on social business. This is what I find most exciting about the new world – where our organisations are a lot less important than the networks they inhabit.
Summer 2014 – How to be a social media superhero
This brings us up to date with lessons from #powerplayers14 and a fun analysis of social media behaviours.
That’s my personal Timehop.
Here’s to the next three years!
Paul Taylor 