Dr. Neil Hair

Welcome to the world new secret research facility! This morning at approximately 10.05am a new facility was built in Facebook to house a motley crew of friends, alums and current students dedicated to offering themselves and their advice to Neil's all important research questions. You too can join this facility and answer occasional survey type questions on what's moving and shaking in the internet marketing area. You will - by contributing - also benefit career wise by being the first to get the results of the efforts. And who wouldn't want to impress the boss with the latest ideas built off the back of some of the worlds finest lab rats. Welcome lab rats to a brave new world of hackademia!

p.s No rats are ever harmed at this facility.

Ive been presenting my ideas on Marketing Trends for 2010 for some time now to the great and good of Rochester. It's proved a popular session that I've run at a number of local conferences and in the UK. One of the key issues I explore in this is the business case for online social networks, the role of virtual worlds in innovating the provision of service / customer experience, and how to build and maintain a personal brand in this new era. Towards the end of summer I will be presenting 'Marketing Trends 2010' to the Greater Rochester Area Partnership with the Elderly - looking specifically at how marketing trends affect the business of elderly care. As with my classes - one of the key outputs I use to judge the effectiveness of the presentation is the extent to which there are concrete take homes for participants to then act on. The benefits of experiential learning shouldn't be the preserve of our students alone afterall. I also find it helps keep me honest - practitioners are always very quick to pick up on practical application, relevance and the measurement of the bottom line with my suggestions.

Presenting this evening to RIT Alums at the Rio Bamba in the city of Rochester. The nature of the presentation - exploring how you can use online social networks to enhance your career. Whilst many are talking about the role of facebook in extending social relationships very few have explored the notion that companies could benefit from enhanced online socially enabled professional relationships. Our work on value (with Vic Perotti) and exploring attitudes towards advertising (Sue Barnes) will be highlighted. Some key findings I want all my alums to think about:

Social networks are becoming relevant for careers;

• Generational and sub generational changes in usage and expectations of usage
• 98% incoming freshman part of a facebook RIT network BEFORE arriving on campus
• Extension of activity POST study
• Socially enabled career progression
• Socially assisted career success
• You are as strong as your network

Some steps I am now advising all outgoing graduates:

1. Don’t ignore the potential of online social networks regards career progression
2. Cover your bases – FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Power be part of the movement
3. Stay current - there will be new opportunities and new platforms
4. Don’t go overboard with your look - FaceBook Professional is a movement
5. Use alumni relations for name hunts of old peers
6. Start groups based on social / work interests
7. Extol the benefits of the movement to managerial audiences
8. Don’t limit yourself to the social aspect

Friday I speak with Sue Barnes at the 2008 Kern Communication Conference here at RIT - 9.45 to 11.45am, Friday 11th April (at the Strathallen in the City of Rochester). Sue and I recently charted the development of Internet Advertising using McLuhan's concept of the rear view mirror as a theoretical framework for understanding future trends. One of the key findings of our research was a focus on consumer personal branding - and branding via association. The event is free for all RIT students and faculty and we hope you'll make it. Here I am pictured at the conference in 2007 discussing of all things - Tech Fetish!

Sue Barnes and I have been chosen to represent respective colleges as part of the Gordon Field house 'WOW' display at the upcoming Imagine Rit Innovation and Creativity Festival on May 3rd. We will be showing off the results of our research on online socially networked classrooms. In particular we will be showcasing our class Online Advertising Class that was taught in and on popular virtual world Second Life. On hand will be a number of 'image consultants' - former students of ours that have expertise in managing online profiles. They will consult with members of the public interested in protecting and enhancing their online self image. Sue and I are really looking forward to showing off what was an amazing experience in Second Life and we hope to see you there.

The department of Communication Colloquium Series presents a read headed double act on Tuesday at 4pm to 5pm in the Golisano Auditorium (70-1400) which should prove interesting to all with a view to virtual worlds. Sue Barnes and I will be presenting our initial research findings which explore students perceptions to teaching within the world and the methods that we used to gain notoriety! Come along and learn more about this new space and get a head start by avoiding the problems we faced.

Vic Perotti and I presented our findings of a recent value study of Facebook activity on Thursday to a packed house. I was very pleased with the turnout, the thoughtfulness of the questions and the enthusiasm for the work already conducted. If you were there - thanks for coming! If you weren't don't worry - Vic and I are putting together an extended pod cast of our work for you to see. Whilst everyone seems to be climbing onto the social networking band wagon very few businesses understand it - our work explores the value of such participation from a consumer perspective. Once we know what value individuals receive, we can commercialize it more effectively. One things for sure, it wont be advertising as another study with Sue Barnes and myself show overwhelming evidence that users don't trust the message or the senders themselves. Interesting times, and we're at the cutting edge in the research of it.

So, the start of a new academic year is almost upon us and the projects that I've been closely related to over the summer are on my mind. Vic and I continue to work on perceived value in online social networks, Sue and I are finishing up work on perceptions of advertising in similar spaces, Moira, Susan and I are looking at business to business perceptions of ideal online experiences, Deb and I are looking at B2C experiences, Chris and I are working on personal branding (Chris - YOU OWE ME WORK), and Nick and I have a cocktail party's worth of papers on ideal online experience across cultures (the Middle East and Asia for instance). Then there's the other papers I'm excited about, online advertising tactics with Shirley, a qualitative study of online advertising with Zelka, relationship marketing tactics with Francesca, SecondLife learning with Anthony and Sue, ideal sports site experience with Alison, cross cultural studies with DanielLa and Akira, perceptions of e-service in online groceries with Joyce - the list goes on. Then there are service issues - Vic and I advising a Saunders initiative on online social networks and Alumni (stay tuned), the colleges branding initiative, developing innovative secondlife courses on online advertising, recruiting - I need a holiday - thank heavens for teaching and cooler weather. Roll on September 1.

I am delighted to report that there is a symposium on Wednesday at RIT on Counterpublics in which I am presenting a disciplinary view of Marketing. Counterpublics are essentially micro cultures that form usually as counters to mainstream cultural movements. It's my job as one of four panelists to articulate the relevance of counterpublics to marketers and I'll be exploring several themes including; the commercial case for targeting counterpublics, the means by which we might do this, the role of new communication platforms in facilitating counterpublics, the caveats that marketers should be acutely aware of, and research techniques relevant to exploring the wants and desires of a counter public. It should be a great day! Registration is free to those who are interested - this will be relevant to a wide audience base including digital entrepreneurs, classic marketers and anyone who wants to specifically target micro cultures that counter public movements.  

Updates: Given the record responses we've received from participating students Vic and I have extended the period of initial data collection. We will close round one on Sunday 18th before setting out on the second round of questions. Thanks for your Patience! It will be worth it!

Last week I posted a research invitation to all my former students on the nature of value in social networks. The results have shocked me. First off Ive had well over 100 responses ranging from a paragraph in length to over three pages of detail. Similarly I've been shocked by the viral nature of the research where responses have started to come in from others who have heard about the work and wanted to get involved. Two further rounds of research exist for those who have participated in the first - both email driven. I look forward to posting the wider results for dissemination in due course. In the meantime, if you want to participate you still can, direct yourself to the research invitation link at the top of this page…

Updates: Given the phenomenal response and the fact that we're still getting emails for round 1 - we're extending the time frames for this research. Please feel free to get involved if you have not already!