It’s one thing for your brand to be socially connected- but just about any brand can play the game by adding Facebook and Twitter accounts, but just owning those accounts is not an act of true transparency, or even proof positive that you really want a connection with your audience.

If you want to really connect with your audience, don’t you need to do something more, something that’s more real and face-to-face?

Take a look at this example from The Guardian, who is quite literally opening themselves up to the readers with a two-day live event, which will be held this year at the end of March.

This event is a chance for readers to interact with the newspaper’s journalists and to debate to discuss issues and topics in hundreds of programmed sessions.

Here’s how The Guardian describes the event.

“More than any other newspaper we can think of the Guardian is open. It has led the way in opening up to its readers – and in welcoming and amplifying other voices. Now we’re opening our doors – hosting a weekend at the end of March for a festival of ideas, innovation and entertainment. Guest speakers from around the world will join our own writers, editors, digital developers and photographers to participate in over 200 programmed sessions on everything from the American presidential elections to the Arab spring.”

More importantly, this isn’t taking place in some sanitized off-site location, where everything can be tightly controlled, it’s taking place in their offices and in the immediate surrounding area. It’s a chance for readers to get up close and personal to the brand itself and to see where it gets “made”.

Here’s what your ticket will allow you to access.

“Your festival ticket gives you unprecedented access to the offices, where you will be able to join sessions in the morning conference room and workshops. While you won’t be able to rummage through the editor’s desk, you will get a sense of the day-to-day working of the building, sample some delicious, sustainably sourced food in the staff canteen, and blog at our Comment is Free pod.”

If you are fan of The Guardian, or just news in general, this is an amazing opportunity to discuss and debate issues and topics with the journalists who’s work you read everyday.

Social media is certainly a great opportunity to get much closer to your customers and done right it can be an amazing tool that allows you to better communicate with them and anticipate and understand their needs.

However, if you really want to get close to your customer, perhaps you need to take a leaf out of The Guardian’s book and open your facilities and people up directly to your customers with a real live event. It seems like this could be a really rewarding exercise in getting to know each other and build real connections, rather than just relying on virtual ones and some focus groups.

Brands love their fans and often want to do everything it takes to keep them happy. When it comes to social media, it’s really important to keep up the element of surprise to capture your fan’s attention and to present them with an idea that makes them feel truly valued and special.

If you happen to be a soccer club with real, genuine fans, the same rules apply, but you have to be careful because in many countries, football (soccer) approaches religious status and if you play too much of a game, it can easily backfire.

This is exactly what happened to Germany’s Bayern Munich soccer club in January of this year, when they announced they were desperately seeking a 12^th man to add to their starting roster.

With Bayern Munich fans getting excited to the point of frenzy about the prospect of a big name signing to further boost the fortunes of the club. The story was so well planted and told, it even had the club’s players quaking in their boots, fearing for their positions with this new incoming star.

The club used Facebook to aggressively promote the news and encouraged its fans to tune to a live event to hear the announcement. At the press conference, they even teased the news by showing videos of some players expressing their delight with the new signing.When the club finally revealed, that the 12^th man, was not in fact a player, but a Facebook app, fans certainly got into a frenzy of anger, bombarding the club’s Facebook page with a tirade of abuse that eventually caused the app to crash. Finally, the club was forced to apologize to its fans for the giant mistake it made.

The moral of this story is that while marketing teams are under considerable pressure to generate breakthrough, it’s tempting to use all the resources at your disposal to drive interest and it’s easy to pull the right levers to get that attention, but beware if you can’t follow through on the news, or deliver to the massive expectations your teasing efforts create.

In a fragmented world, the water cooler effect is bigger than ever, but so very different.

Massive news events are now following a similar and somewhat predictable pattern.

The news of the recent passing of Whitney Houston was broken on Twitter, rather than a conventional media source and it gathered momentum as the news spread like wildfire; there were 2.5 million Tweets within the first hour of the news story= over 1k/second. As seen in other news events, there’s often one powerful major news outlet that creates the “accelerator” effect, in this case, it was MSNBC.

People wanted to express their own thoughts and get involved in the ways that the web now allows them to- by curating, creating and commenting.

People created their own radio stations-  apparently Pandora saw 640,000 Whitney Houston stations created in a couple of days.

Facebook saw the number of people talking about the singer and becoming fans increase dramatically- in the past 7 days more than 1 million people have become fans and the “talking about” numbers have grown from under 100k to over 800k.

What’s interesting is the bigger the news- the faster the tone of the story moves.

While in the pre-internet days the passing of a major celebrity would have been played out solemnly over maybe a week on the major news outlets, the way the story unfolds now over the hours is very different. There’s simply too much information being shared, changed and with so many people weighing in that the story quickly moves from the sincere to the cynical, so cynical that just hours after the news you find scammers who look to capitalize on people’s attention around the topic.

Technology is transforming many of our experiences and our involvement in news stories is one particular facet. The early and tragic death of a celebrity who was a major presence in pop culture in the formative years of everyone in the Millennial Generation was likely to strike a significant emotional chord and therefore to see the story play out on the web with people actively getting involved and engaged is not surprising.

It’s an illustration of the transformation that a connected web has brought to our lives. As we’ve become massively fragmented into our own discrete groups, where we are consuming and sometimes creating our very own flavors of media, once something strikes us all, we have a profoundly human response, which is to gather around the water cooler to share.

The difference is that while this water cooler serves the same emotional function, it’s simply bigger than ever and the volume of and range of conversation and importantly expression is exponential orders of magnitude more powerful than the office water cooler-making it a completely different and new “shared” experience.

While it’s very easy to point a finger at Kodak for missing the digital revolution, but those who did make the jump, Canon and Nikon face a serious challenge for their own survival from smartphones.

The revolution in computing power and miniaturization now means capable cameras can now be found in the average smartphone. More people are using their smartphone their main camera and for the past year of so, the iPhone has been the most widely used camera on photo sharing sites like Flickr.

The challenges for the Japanese camera makers look like becoming further exasperated by an onslaught of new camera technology for phones that’s just around the corner.

Chip maker, Qualcomm has just announced an S4 Camera or ISP (Image Signal Processor) which allows it to shoot up to 20 Megapixel stills as wells shoot video at 1080p (30 frames per second) and can employ up to three cameras for 3D capture. The technology also comes equipped with auto focus, auto exposure, white balance and enables features such as blink detection, smile degree, and gaze estimation. It’s also possible to enable active “Range-Finding”, zero shutter lag, and image stabilization.

This ISP technology can already be found in the HTC Titan 2 phone.

The digital camera companies face a tough time as powerful technology gets placed inside of everyone’s phone. While they can try and compete by pushing their technologies to stay slightly ahead for the moment- a bigger size camera and higher price points mean that they can use higher powered processors and obviously better lenses, but resistance to the phone seems futile.

Instead of resisting or ignoring the massive transformation- Canon and Nikon need  to partner with handset makers right now while they sill have the chance. This demands a radical technology re-think and a shift too much more of a software-based state of mind- think cool apps like Instagram.

The space is there for hybrid technology that combines the everyday, easy accessible appeal and power of the smartphone with the quality and control that Canon and Nikon are known for.

When Facebook becomes a public company-it’s obvious that it will be forced to generate ever increasing revenues from its user base. The only way the company can deliver these revenues is by selling more advertising and making more money through user transactions.

The advertising issue is key- currently Facebook is being use by brands to finely target messages to discrete audiences and with below average CTRs, it’s really all about branding. For most brands, it’s all about going where the eyeballs are, so it’s an imperative to be on Facebook, but questions remain around effectiveness and the real ROI on these efforts.

Clearly, with the move timeline and greater integration of applications, Facebook is gathering masses of data that can be used by brands for even better targeting. The challenge is obviously to find a way to go beyond simple exposures and to do something more compelling and powerful for both brands and users. I am not sure we are quite there yet- everyone is looking for the way to crack this and maybe Facebook will do it, or someone in the ecosystem that surrounds it-maybe the next great “start-up”.

The big challenge is how to expand the advertising offering, including in its currently under utilized mobile platform, without creating more clutter and thus undermining the user experience. A recent analysis of the S1 filing suggests that the company will have to “monetize their users by a rate of 5-10X what they are currently doing.”

The privacy issue is also fundamental with the EU already wanting to restrict the amount and level of data collected, which could put the brakes on some other company’s plans for deeper advertising opportunities.

Facebook’s success has been based on delivering a brilliant user experience that facilitates and manages connections in an entirely new way. Its brand power comes from the strength of the emotional ties it helps to build and in from the content individuals use to create and “cultivate” their personal identities.

However, as Zuckerberg understood from the earliest days, there’s a very fine line to tread and the pressures of being public, plus the incentives being offered to its sales people etc, could push the company close.

In the end, like most things, it’s ultimately about trust- if the brand can continue to win consumer trust it will develop and grow revenues, not just through advertising, but also in credits and payments, which could be even bigger than the ad business.

Facebook’s ability to manage its way to future success depends entirely on what it does to maintain the very delicate balance.

Author Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections, Freedom) does not appear to have many positive things to say about technology, in fact, he’s something of a Luddite.

In a recent talk given at the Hay Festival in Columbia, Franzen argues that e-books are bad for both the reader and the writer, explaining how hard it is to concentrate as a writer with all the technology around you and how the lack of a physical object with e-books, changes the relationship the reader has with the content.

It’s a theme that Franzen has covered in his work and was expressed by his character Walter Beglund in the 2010 novel Freedom.

“‘This fragmentation. Because it’s the same problem everywhere. It’s like the internet, or cable TV – there’s never any centre, there’s no communal agreement, there’s just a trillion bits of distracting noise … All the real things, the authentic things, the honest things, are dying off.’”

It might be easy to take issue with Walter’s perspective, because in reality the “centers” are almost bigger than ever; this week’s Superbowl audience will be huge and there are certainly centers around other appointment television programs, movies and of course, news stories.

What’s true is that our behaviors and attention are changing- as way of example, it looks like this year could be the first “two screen” Superbowl with brands like Chevy trying to deepen the engagement of their television advertising, by providing an additional communication experience for tablets and encouraging users to “Don’t just watch, play along with the Superbowl.”

Looking forward to the future, Edelman’s report indicates that business needs to think much more about societal issues in order to gain that all important trust.

The reports data shows that currently, trust is being driven by success with operational issues like; financial returns, innovation and leadership. These drivers seem to match with the current preoccupations of most company’s CEOs and senior management, with innovation having been the “buzzword” for the past decade.

Winning trust in the future appears to be all about understanding and delivering against what Edelman terms “societal” issues; the most important of these is placing greater importance on the needs of consumers- listening to customer needs and feedback ranks no1 and placing customers ahead of profits is no 4. People issues appear to be dominant, because treating employees well ranks no 3.

Broader ethical issues follow these “people issues” with taking actions to address issues and crises and having ethical business practices ranking no4 and no6 on the list.

It’s interesting that while so much emphasis in the past has been placed on the environment as an issue, it still matters, but “people” are now a bigger issue. Perhaps it’s because the environment is abstract and how a company acts with consumers and employees is more tangible, easier to relate to and a good barometer for the ethics of a company.

These results should make companies think much more about their communication efforts and encourage them to focus on demonstrating that they are acting in the interests of their customers,  listening to them, value their employees and their contributions.

These seems to demand more active and sophisticated strategies with social media, than just a Facebook page with coupons and promotions. Companies need to find the right social media channels and platforms to connect with consumers in order to genuinely solicit their input and demonstrate and update customers on how this input is being used, but also to find ways to bring the people behind the company and the humanity of the business to life in a real and transparent manner.

Listening to Terry Gross interview Trent Reznor, I was struck by the musician’s drive for constant experimentation.

He explained in the interview that in the process of recording the soundtrack for the new movie, The Girl with Dragon Tattoo, Reznor and his creative partner Atticus Ross, purchased 3 beat-up pianos and then preceded to mess with them in order to create and generate interesting sounds.

As we enter a period of morphing creative hybrids and a world where know one quite knows what works, it’s amazing to see the dearth of experimentation in the world of advertising and communication.

While we have masses of tech start-ups emerging everyday with new ideas for utility and functionality that can enhance our existing processes, this isn’t going on when it comes to pure creative communication.

Every year, there are a handful of standout examples of some really smart, fresh, lateral thinking, but of the millions of executions and thousands of campaigns, a handful isn’t that great a strike rate.

Now is precisely the time to take chances and experiment for a couple of reasons.

1. There’s never been a better time- technology is there, the audience is there
2. You can’t learn, unless you experiment
3. The bar to breakthrough right now is so high- to achieve it, you’ve simply got to experiment

While many agencies are thinking about tech labs, incubators and finding ideas that can become business worthy for themselves and clients, which is smart, but don’t we also need the C21st equivalent of Charles and Ray Eames’ Los Angeles studio or Andy Warhol’s factory?

Where are our places where we can break old pianos to see what sounds they make and the brands that want us to do that for them?

One thing Apple has taught us over the past decade is that there can be such a thing as “mass cool”.

Originally, cool was found in niches and pockets and sub-cultures, cool was divisive and it sorted people out; there’s were cool things and then the stuff that everyone else had, which was mass.

Somehow Apple managed to make it’s cool accessible to everyone that’s probably the single most important factor behind its incredible growth,

Nike has been a partner with Apple for a while and obviously learned a great deal along the way. In the period of their working relationship on Nike+, the athletic giant has learned a fair bit about the allure of technology and the next iteration, Nike Fuel seems to be an interesting consolidation of learning experiences.

What interests me most me most about the idea is how equalizing it is- instead of splitting active individuals into camps according to discipline, the world is one and it has a universal currency which is even branded- “Nike Fuel”. It seems so accessible and easy- I can see grandmothers using it with their grandchildren- the cool band being the bond that they share.

Suddenly, I have a vision of participating with my peers and also comparing myself to the greats- the possibilities and application of this data both social and beyond are pretty infinite. I can see televised basketball games with Fuel data running on a ticker, I can see challenges between athletes across different sports- the list goes on and that’s not even considering the opportunity to drive consumers directly to product.

With all the benefits that are heading Nike’s way, the darn thing should be free, but they are smart enough to charge $150 for the privilege of you giving them your precious athletic data.

Fuel is the latest iteration and build on the already iconic Nike+, which still is the “go to”case study that defines brand utility and it’s been around for years and we don’t yet
really have anything comparable from anyone else, what are brands waiting for?