Elanso

PSFK friend and Likemind co-host Noah Brier, strategist at Naked Communications, will be sharing his insights on the evolution of media and communications in the digital age on our Social Media panel at PSFK Conference New York. We asked him to talk a little about himself and what inspires him.

First, who are you and what do you do?

I’m Noah. I work as a strategist for Naked Communications, I co-founded the global coffee morning likemind and I write a blog called NoahBrier.com (a very original name, I know). I do lots of other stuff too, but those three take up the bulk of my time.

You’ll be speaking on our Social Media panel - can you sum up your views on how social media will change in 2008 and how brands can leveral this digital phenomenon in the most rewarding way?

How it will change? I expect we will begin to see more niche social networks and a bit of slowdown for Facebook growth (which we have already seen this year). In addition I think we’ll see some more focused blogging platforms (a la Twitter, Tumblr). While neither of these services are particularly revolutionary from a technology standpoint (like blogs, they’re just content management systems), they’re built for very specific purposes. As for brands leveraging social media, hopefully this year more will ask themselves why they’re doing this and what value they’re bringing to people with it. Unfortunately it feels like brands are getting involved here in the same way they built websites in the late 90s: With no vision or plan and just because everyone else was doing it. To me I feel like the most rewarding way for brands to leverage social media is listening. We live in an age where you can hear thousands of people talking about your brand, product or service without leaving your desk. That’s cool.

Five websites that provide you with inspiration:

www.american.com

swissmiss.typepad.com

bubblegeneration.com

www.murketing.com/journal

www.nytimes.com

Thanks, Noah!