Tell us the basics: Who are you, what’s your company’s name and how long have you been at this company?

My name is Dean Browell and I’m with Feedback – I’m one of the three partners who founded the company in 2009. We have offices here in Richmond as well as London.

We notice you have a PhD — that probably makes you different from a lot of other social media experts. What field is your degree in, and what led you to Feedback?

My PhD is in education, specifically looking at how different generations interact online. My research background is in ethnography, and we apply those research principles and a philosophy of listening to audiences and industries first before barreling into social media. Our insights and way of thinking end up helping way more than just social strategies.

Who are Feedback’s clients — actual brands or the marketing and public relations organizations that serve those brands?

Both, actually. We founded Feedback to work with brands and agencies of all types to help add intelligence and firepower to their audience engagement. For agencies we help provide helpful research that informs creative, public relations and more. Our research also helps train and augment what they offer in terms of social services. And we also work for a number of large brands directly, often interfacing with the firms they employ.  We’ve worked with everyone from The Martin Agency here in town to Camelbak in California, and we’re members of Worldwide Partners, Inc. – an international network of independently owned ad agencies.

Read the full interview here:
http://workitrichmond.com/people/dean-browell/

Feedback’s Executive Vice President, Dean Browell remarked, “We are completely beside ourselves that we can attract top talent like Heather and Thomas. It speaks to the speed and quality of our work that we have grown so early in the company’s life. I think our clients and fans can tell that we are having a blast. Let’s keep it going!”

Millar and McDonald join at an exciting time in Feedback’s vibrant early life as a firm. Feedback’s client roster, largely conducted through partnerships with advertising and public relations firms across the country, has been growing at a rapid pace to include some of the nation’s industry-leading agencies including: national and international institutions in technology, transportation, healthcare, higher education, tourism, direct marketing, nonprofits, automotive and more. Because Feedback often operates behind the scenes, contact Feedback directly for client names we can divulge.

Feedback’s work has also been lauded literally out of the gate: Feedback was proud to be a part of the Nation of Go campaign developed by The Martin Agency for BF Goodrich which won a Silver Cannonball award at the recent Richmond Show for Interactive (Social Media/other). Catch Feedback live this week in Manchester, TN and back home in Richmond, VA with the Feedback Mobile Lab, studying event tourism in social media at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.

Feedback was formed in September 2009, combining great ideas, decades in interactive marketing and a PhD focusing on generational and demographic differences in online technologies into an unusually focused team. Founding members include: Jeff Thompson as CEO and President; Executive Vice President Dean Browell, PhD; and Experience Manager Anna Lucas. Feedback is a leading market strategy and social media firm that assists organizations with ethnographic qualitative research, new media and interactive strategy, program implementation and more. For more information, visit Feedback on the web at http://www.feedbackagency.com, on Twitter as @feedbackagency, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/feedbackfb and by phone at (804) 893-3437.

The big three in question, Apple, Google and Facebook, all had relatively good news to share (iPad, Buzz, and a new look for Home, respectively), reasons to be happy and new products and features. There was no Toyota-like tail to tuck between legs and no reason to think that by traipsing out in front of the crowd that there would be anything but cheers. That is, unless they had actually asked anyone outside their company ahead of time about what they were about to do. Maybe then they’d have a glimpse of the near-future.

Underestimating Your Undercut
The reception to Apple‘s iPad has oscillated between wide-eyed wonder and, “you’ve got to be kidding” with a dash of, “looks cool but I’m reasonably sure that’s for old men.” But this story is not about the iPad itself. In fact while you still get some mainstream media Twittering on the tablet, the real critique is going on about the Flash debate. Both onstage and off Apple has been sharpening its sword to go after the Adobe Flash issue, swearing by the constant crashes and closed system it presents, hoping to migrate the universe (or at least Apple-controlled space) toward a Flashless existence. However by trying to point at that pot the kettle can also be seen and the closed-system of Apple’s world, combined with their want to control everything has been on a different stage for all to see. It’s been the theater equivalent of the curtain opening too early and seeing the director strangling a dramaturge.

What has secrecy wrought?
In an era where people try and keep things tight-lipped, the iPad and Buzz were no real secret. We knew Apple and Google ether were or would drop something like these things at some point, but they obviously maintained a vice-like grip on details. Too bad, because once we got past the, “okay, that’s what we thought” stage, the internets converged on what was actually presented and pounced like a pack of wolves.

The death of the Beta Test?
And when Google reached a swollen, wounded hand up from the fray, what was so astonishing was that a company that should completely know better, that had usually teased out features to anyone who would have them via Labs for years, had been eaten completely by the crowd. How bad was it? A company like Google was having to make face-saving changes to Buzz before the ink had dried on their own press releases. There were performance problems, privacy flaws (serious ones) and more.

Look, when there’s even a reality show where the prize is to be a game tester (no matter how sad that concept is) there is at least a transparency now about the product development process that can and should include some amount of user beating before things go to market. Again, it’s not like these products were secret to begin with.

Great News! We All Use Your Service & Know How Bad It Performs
Which brings us to Facebook. Seriously. By now you should know better than anyone. Never mind that they eased in their new look complete with some very bizarre choices (Video is hidden under photo? Huh?), what was happening under the hood was even more disturbing. Debuting before the Super Bowl meant that the News Feed issues that accompanied the big game could be masked by the high-volume of users (right?) – but when the News Feed problems persisted into the week after, we all smelled an issue. Worse still, it looks like Facebook has been trying to monkey with the problem by adding a strangely draconian solution, the, “oh by-the-way-we-haven’t-been-showing-you-your-friends” revelation that most of us have been limited to seeing only a fraction of our friends in the News Feed lately – and Facebook picked which friends. Meanwhile administrators have noticed that some Pages have gone unpublished and then suddenly published again and we have all witnessed strange slowdowns in updates, views and communications with other services. Really Facebook? I know you’re big now, but this is an awfully systemic bunch of bugs. You never gave us a FailWhale to look at, you just make us think you’re working right until we notice things aren’t updating. At least I know when to leave Twitter alone.

Honorable Mention
Speaking of Twitter, you’re on notice too for falling down so much. What is it, 2008 again? Please go make some revenue so we can have more dependable servers and can see “Old Posts” again.

Solution?
I can’t believe this is something we should have to tell some of the most respected (and social) companies in the world but: LISTEN. Roll it out, stress test it. Privacy test it. Don’t just let mock-ups speak for you, let your product roll around in some hands. In some of these cases we’re talking about some very obvious issues: philosophies of privacy, basic volume-handling, old arguments with renewed ammo. We know the excuses. “But it crashes Safari!” “But it’s exactly what we need!” “But we’re free so don’t complain!” Screamed with all the rigor of Gollum’s, “It burns usss!” We appreciate you’re not thrilled with our response, but don’t pat us on the head, just listen and change.

-Dean (@dbrowell)

I’m referring to what is affectionately called “NaNoWriMo” or, National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every November, where a heap of unbalanced humans attempt to keep normal lives while banging out 50k words in an attempt to write an entire novel of some distinguishable size.

I bring it up here because while the effort itself is not explicitly tied to social media, the social component that is not only possible but encouraged has taken many social networks by storm.

Take Twitter for example, with a search for the hashtag #NaNoWriMo.

urbanpar: It takes 10,000 hours of practicing before you become a master at anything. #amwriting #nanowrimo. So I’ll be great at 30?

iAMSAMmet: Hit 27k! And still writing! Finally getting back my inspiration and it’s feeling great! My best chapter so far. #nanowrimo

kerstyn_leigh: Managed to write a few hundred words while still taking notes and listening attentively. I’m getting better at this. #nanowrimo

The main website has some nice social tools, from old-fashioned message boards to author friending, wordcount meters and more.

NaNoWriMo writers end up using all kinds of apps. I use My Writing Nook which keeps my novel in the cloud and lets me write on it via web or iPhone.

It’s just funny, that in this era of an economy of letters, numbers and symbols, when I’m stripping sentences down to some ur’s, OMG’s, and w/’s , there are arguably more long-form writers than ever, producing sizable work. And more to the point, they’re using social media to take breaks and communicate their experiences in writing, producing thousands of Tweets a day in between thousands of chapters.

-Dean (@dbrowell)

P.S. My profile on NaNoWriMo is here, with my novel falling way behind in word count (let’s blame Feedback’s exciting start and work). I’m writing a book of a story my 5 year old daughter and I came up with, so it’s a labor of love.

Have interns? Pass along this post!

-Dean (@dbrowell)

-Dean (@dbrowell)

-Dean (@dbrowell)