#robindunbar

[2coolgq]

#RobinDunbar

[jeremywaite]

Social Media Needs More Big Fat Italian Uncles

Italy pretty much sucks at social media.

Well.... thats probably not fair, but despite having over 60m people and being a powerful Western country, they are not even in the top 10 countries in the world in terms of Facebook users (23m in case you wondered). In all my experience, Italy is also a very immature market in regards to social media and depending upon who you speak to, they are widely believed to be between 1 and 2 years behind the UK.

That being said, I wish we were all a bit more Italian...

Italians have style. They have great food (especially great cheese) and they have some outstanding vino. They are also a great cycling nation. All of my favourite things. But more than that, despite looking like laggards in social media terms, they are probably the most social of all nations. 

I went for a ride out to my favourite (Italian inspired) cycle shop Rapha today and stopped by an Italian deli for an espresso en route. As usual there was a big fat Italian uncle in the corner telling stories to some tourists. He's always there. And he's always telling stories. Everybody loves him! And that's what it's all about really isn't in - breaking bread with each other, having a laugh, quaffing a bit of vino and sharing a few tales.

There's a much bigger debate I'll have another time about how we are more connected than ever, but are probably more dis-connected than ever in terms of our close relationships. I've been reading a lot of Robin Dunbar's work this week, and his general view is that we can only sustain 150 friendships but we actually only have 5 real friends. Social media, in his opinion, just prolongs the decay of a relationship if you don't actually get off your ass and go and hang out with your mates.

Apple could even be the branded version of that big fat Italian uncle. They have style. We love hanging out in their stores and they all feel very "social". And they tell great stories. But they are very anti-social media (no real Facebook page or Twitter account etc), yet they have the most loyal fan base of possibly any brand in the world. 

Social media isn't everything folks, let's not forget that. All these social networks we are lucky enough to play on are just tools. They are not a solution or a magic formula to help you acquire new friends or new customers. They are great vehicles to help us do stuff, but the real joy, in my humble opinion, comes in spending some real time with those people that matter most to you.

Have a great weekend everyone :) x

[jeremywaite]

The Internet Can Not Buy You Any More Friends

No matter how big Facebook gets, it seems you can only ever have 150 "friends". When the iconic British social anthropologist Robin Dunbar addressed the issue further in his new book, How Many Friends Does One Person Need? — we highly recommend it.The amount of time we invest in a relationship is proportionate to its quality. Face-to-face relationships are simply unmatched by online ones.

“A touch is worth a 1000 words any day,” says Dunbar. But what online relationships are good for is to stall the decay of a relationship. If you don’t go to the pub sooner or later, it will die.” ~ Dunbar