Social Objects & Social Markers

2 comments

March 24, 2008

FastCompany TV has an interview with Hugh MacLeod where he talks about Social Objects and Social Markers.

A company can’t go out there and say they’ll make a social object. They go out there and it either becomes a social object or it dies… Flickr is not a repository of photographs it’s a place to share ideas.


Social Markers he says is a social object that a company or person uses to stake out a certain territory in a certain social space. Hugh asks, if your product isn’t being used as a social marker, what business are you in?gapingvoid: “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards”

By Piers Fawkes

in Advertising & Branding, Global Community
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Comments (2)

  1. I think Hugh is on to something here. Social gestures beget social objects is a germ of an idea. So long as the social objects work to further the a selling proposition. If we get too far away from selling we’re f’ed. One other point, I think the message is everything. Without a proper and appropriate message to surround these social objects and markers, the UGC world become dangerous. Even with some positive case studies to support it.

    Steve Poppe
    March 24th, 2008 at 9:01 am

  2. Hey Steve, thanks for the feedback. “f we get too far away from selling we’re f’ed”. Yep. Got it in one ;-)

    Thanks for the link , Piers :)

    hugh macleod
    March 24th, 2008 at 9:12 am