Hacking the hive mind by #1hrbook

Parenting:

hacking the hive mind

Preface There’s an old African proverb that “it takes a village to raise a child”. An entire community, rather than just close family, to help parents navigate the often tricky path of bringing up a child. Over time, the meaning of ‘village’ has changed. And now parents have a global digital network to tap into. Not just made up of their close-by community, but gurus from the other side of the world, celebrities, and forums of like-minded “strangers” who are united by a need-state. Of course it’s not just parents that tap into this ‘hive mind’. We rely on reviews from strangers when we buy products, we compete against people we’ve never met via online fitness and gaming communities, and the world’s primary encyclopaedia contains 5 million pages which anyone can edit. Social communities have been growing for many years and effective ways for brands and organisations to tap into them continue to evolve. What’s emerged is a much more organised and interconnected online world. The insurmountable noise created by a mass of people leads to cultural filtering of conversation and a much greater value being placed on authority. The social “influencer” - be it a publication, a person or the organiser of a community, hold many keys to much-coveted distribution. When organisations slipstream the conversations within the 2

culture they want to infiltrate, and work alongside the influencers driving this, information and ideas travel faster than ever previously imagined. To demonstrate this, Squared Online and Mr. President brought together a small group of mostly non-parents and wrote a book about parenting in just one hour. In this world-first social experiment we obtained all of our parenting insights by simply tapping into existing conversation, and leveraging the reach and credibility of influencers within parenting communities. We used parenting as a test-subject for this experiment because it represents one of the strongest ties for online community. This “judgement free” guide to parenting explores what the global hive mind consider to be the many challenges, opportunities and everyday gripes facing parents in the digital age.

Contributors Influencers Show us the most brilliant thing your child has created? What’s the last thing your child asked you that you had to look up on the internet? Creating a hashtag for your kid - yay or nay? What’s your one piece of advice to new parents about the daily battles of being a mum or dad? Where do you get parenting advice from? What’s the age that you’d let your child have a phone? Kids say the funniest things - tell us more Concluding thoughts

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Contributors

Clancy Walsh Senior Social Media Manager @ Mr. President

Adah Parris Personal branding expert

Malini Gola Client Account Director @ Mindshare

Tamika Abaka-Wood Research + Insight, Ben&Andrew.

Alexandre Carvalho

Charlotte Wright - Marketing Executive @ American Express

Sarah Druett Business Planning @ Mindshare

Contributors

Neil Gannon Head of Marketing @ Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Beer Alliance

David Knox Digital Marketing Manager

Melanie Goodchild Brand Manager @ Argos

Piers Langendoen Online Marketing Manager @ Post Office

Lou Parker Director of Procurement and Contract Management @ Three

Lachlan Shaw Stewart Account Manager - SEO & Content Marketing @ Mindshare

Rajat Varma Senior Digital Marketing Manager @ HSBC

Influencers

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1) Vicki Psarias @ Honest Mum honestmum.com Honest Mum is a critically acclaimed lifestyle, parenting, food & fashion blog launched in November 2010. 2) Sally Whittle @ Who’s The Mummy whosthemummy.co.uk Who’s the Mummy is one of the UK’s top parenting blogs, written by freelance writer, Mum blogger and editor Sally Whittle, founder of the Tots100 index of UK parent blogs. 3) Al @ The Dad Network thedadnetwork.co.uk From the practical and the emotional to the philosophical and fun, our aim is simple – to uncover the secrets to being a confident dad, and to exhibit how to be the core of our children’s universe. 4) Molly J Forbes @ Mother’s Always Right mothersalwaysright.com Parenting and lifestyle blog shortlisted for four national blogging awards since it went live in February 2011.

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Show us the most brilliant thing your child has created? 1) Claire Khan Ashleigh drew us a family portrait aged 3 - always makes us smile 2) Emma Bowie Generally just covering a wall 3) Natalie McAdam @NicolaMcAdam a painted handprint on a card. Means more than any present.

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@EoinMcDnnll @sarahtg100 #1hrbook why does Prince Namor do bad things? #marvelcomics

@sarahtg100 @EoinMcDnnll What was your answer?

@EoinMcDnnll @sarahtg100 tried to frame a conversation about mental illness in which I entirely failed...

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the last thing your child asked you that you had to look up on the internet?

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Creating a hashtag for your kid - yay or nay?

90% say ‘Nay’

10% say ‘Yay’

Isabelle Adams Intermittent hashtag yes, serious hashtag no. As a trend I can understand why people do it: creating an easy photo album where someone can see their whole life played out on Instagram. That said, who aside from the direct family really cares enough to use/search the tag? And is it weird that their whole life is on a social platform? I think save the hashtags for weddings, birthdays and pets.

Comment

Any help would be appreciated. Creating a hashtag for your kid – yay or nay? #1hrbook

@EoinMcDnnll @Charlote_Wright @thedadnetworkuk #1hrbook nay you’re imposing your social tools upon them

Mama

Nay if named @AmyWhiteley @naomidunne Nay. [Although caveat depending at what age]. I am talking under twos...and not sure anyone wants hashtag updates of poops?

Why not?

Mama

Too personal – could be very embarrassing particularly if old enough to be reading stuff

Mama

As you well know :P :) :)

@AmyWhiteley @mollyjforbes Ignore all advice! More helpfully: fill freezer with food, get rest. If in doubt, they’re probably hungry (baby, not husband).

Sophie Wild Trust your gut feeling, it’s usually right. Try not to over-analyse – often there’s no answer or solution, and it’s always just a phase anyway! Keep busy – find some friends within the same boat and see lots of them to stay sane. Empower the dad and tell them what a great job they are doing.

Comment

Jules Orford Order your nappies and wipes through Amazon subscription. Also when people offer to lend you clothes and equipment before the baby arrives accept everything (even if you don’t end up using it) as you will save a fortune. And you can never have too many muslins!

Comment

Rowley Aird Saw this the other day

@AndyLloydGordon Hi @mollyjforbes I’d echo Dr Spock’s (#Pediatrician not #startrek!) wisdom “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” #1hrbook

@janeBlackmore @mollyjforbes @emmaand3 @ iamalisonperry don’t listen to anyone :)

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your one piece of advice to new parents about the daily battles of being a mum or dad?

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Where do you get parenting advice from?

Kerrie-Anne Langendoen

Mum! 5 hours ago

Kerrie-Anne Langendoen

Piers Langendoen

Or mumsnet 5 hours ago

Nice.

Thanks guys

Sasha Sullivan

nappyvalley net 5 hours ago

Comment

@thedadnetworkuk

@xandelmc 18

Melanie Goodchild

Please tell me itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 16!!

Sarah Howell From the research I did for work 3 years ago, most parents give them a phone when they start secondary school at 11. But ownership is getting younger and 8 is now the entry age, although I think you see a big jump at 11.

Comment

Melissa Lancashire

Personally, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see the need before secondary school. #1hrbook

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the age that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d let your child have a phone?

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Kids say the funniest things - tell us more.

@el_donde @Clancyatw but you told me to paint the cabbage purple so i did... #1hrbook

@jonathanbarker @mangoonanapple #1hrbook My toddler says “mummy” he sees a bottle of wine

Charlotte Manns My neighbour commented on Molly’s nice body warmer this morning. Molly, 3, replied ‘it’s not a body warmer silly. It’s a gilet!’ Fashionista!

Comment

@joe_wulf @Clancyatw not said, but did. Best thing i‘ve seen was a small child dressed in a full spiderman outfit fail at climbing a street sign.

@EoinMcDnnll @Clancyatw @swhittle “I’m going to make myself invisible by drawing four dots on this page and holding it in front of my face” #1hrbook

@engagednready @HonestMummy When I rule the world, all children will have icecreams when they want - My 5 yr old godson. 1

@HarrietOBell @sarahtg100 ‘how long do trees last?’ #1hrbook

@HonestMummy @engagednready Love that!

Concluding thoughts Social networks have changed what we perceive as “community” - not least by monumentally extending it. In this experiment we harnessed the power of the hive mind as a result of being strategic about what we asked of a community, and where. We may have gathered sufficient content to fill a whole book in just one hour, but setting the foundations took much longer. We used social media monitoring tools in order to identify trends in conversation and thus ensure that we asked questions that would render willing responses. We also spent time identifying and working with the influential community leaders, driving the conversation, in order to help our mission catch fire in the right places. And it worked! We received well over 150 responses to the questions that we shared with parenting communities - so many that we couldn’t include them all in this final book. We hope this demonstrates an alternative to a more familiar “social strategy” that so many brands and organisations adopt: hijacking culture with broadcasting cries for affection via a drumbeat of “always on” content. Instead we believe that the most effective opportunity for brands and organisations to connect with their audience through social is to ‘hack’ culture by understanding the themes of conversations (and the key players driving this) and then identify a shared purpose to form a connection from the inside.