Presented at Digital Shoreditch 2015, Rob Blackie and Leo Ryan discuss the five best mistakes made in Social.

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Getting it wrong
Rob Blackie, Director of Social
Leo Ryan, Global Head of Social Innovations & Partnerships
Follow us @robblackie_oo and @Leotwit

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Accidentally good…

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‘CAN SQUIRRELS GET ADDICTED TO CRACK?’

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WE’VE LEARNT
• The best ideas are open to
interpretation – not forced
or bribed collaboration

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WE’VE LEARNT
• Accidents happen – so volume helps
you get a hit

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WE’VE LEARNT
• Huge ethical issues around
jokes that might be
interpreted as facts

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Mary Meeker’s stats
Don’t trust numbers unless you
understand them

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THIS IS OK….

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THIS IS STRANGE….
• Messages =
• 700m photos uploaded &
sent PLUS
• 500m Stories consumed

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THIS IS STRANGE….
• Equivalent Facebook
figures:
• 400m photos PLUS
• 50bn impressions
Facebook
Messages / Day = 50.4bn

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THE GOOD NEWS
We started taking Snapchat seriously, even if the numbers were
flawed.

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OTHER STATISTICS PROBLEMS
• Small samples sizes
– less than 1,000 is
rarely a good idea.

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OTHER STATISTICS PROBLEMS
• Direction of causation – did people watch your video
because they liked the brand or vice versa?
Source: Making an impact: Measuring the value of Facebook video

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OTHER STATISTICS PROBLEMS
• Self reported behaviours –
do people know what they
do? Will they be honest?
Students report 145
minutes per day on
Facebook, actually
spending 26
minutes per day
Source: Comparing actual and self-reported measures of
Facebook use, Computers in Human Behaviour 29

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OTHER STATISTICS PROBLEMS
• Figures from social
networks – self-serving,
misleading, rarely useful
Source: qz.com / Twitter

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OTHER STATISTICS PROBLEMS
• Cross-country engagement
scores – huge differences in
behaviours driven by things
as simple as the most
common devices used
• Yet virtually all studies cited
in the Social industry are
based on the US

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Crappy content isn’t
always bad

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THIS IMAGE IS TERRIBLE

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BUT IT WORKED….

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SO I REPEATED THE TEST…

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WE’VE LEARNT
• Tribalism & identity
often trump quality

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Thank You
Rob Blackie, Director of Social
Leo Ryan, Global Head of Social Innovations & Partnerships
Follow us @robblackie_oo and @Leotwit