 Q&A - Colin Daniels
Digital Head of AutoTrader
Q: As Digital Head of AutoTrader, how easy or difficult would you say it is to maintain an online presence?
It’s more difficult than it used to be four or five years ago, when all you really worried about was maintaining a blog and perhaps a YouTube and Flickr account. Now there’s Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, LinkedIn, Posterous, Foursquare and many others so it’s become far more fragmented since the dawn of the Web 2.0 era. Many people “link” their accounts in an attempt to maintain an active online presence but this doesn’t really work so well as can be seen when Foursquare alerts also come through Twitter. At the moment I’m pretty active on Twitter and LinkedIn and I blog occasionally, but I can’t find the time for much else, to be honest.
Q: How important is it for a company to be on Twitter or Facebook?
It really depends on the type of business and who your target audience is. Social media can be a company’s best friend or its worst nightmare so it’s important to be fully committed, with a proper strategy in place that takes into account staffing requirements and potential risks before moving forward. FNB’s Twitter account (@rbjacobs) is an excellent local example of where a proper strategy has helped FNB serve its customers better and increase their brand credibility on a platform where people tend to discuss brands and poor customer service. Companies also need to be aware of how things like privacy issues and confidentiality affect them as there has recently been heated public debate around this, especially Facebook’s schizophrenic behaviour, which doesn’t inspire much confidence in the long term.
Q: Do you find that you need to be online all the time, so you know what's happening? If so, do you use your cellphone for this?
In the past I used to have withdrawal symptoms when I was offline for more than an hour or so, but in recent times I’ve realised that my productivity levels increase immensely when I go offline and turn off distractions such as e-mail and Twitter. I now do this regularly throughout the day. As my mom says: “The sun will still come out tomorrow!” Generally, when I’m not near my computer, I have my trusty iPhone and BlackBerry with me so there’s no shortage of connectivity options. I find they’re a pretty good extension of my computer.
Q: Outside the office, are you still a geek? What do you call leisure activities?
I’m probably what you would call a quasi-geek because I love technology and always have the latest gadgets but I like to go offline in my spare time and enjoy activities such as squash, running, yoga and golf.
Q: Is there any gadget that you are secretly lusting after?
The iPad. There, I said it!
Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog?
Focus on topics that you are passionate about and make sure that you have enough time and energy to maintain it. Otherwise, go for something simpler like Posterous.
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