About

Hello!

I’m Simon. I help people and organisations understand and communicate through the social web.

I do this primarily by being consultancy director at We Are Social. My team researches and analyses emerging digital trends, develops creative communications and campaign strategies and delivers training and consultancy.

Before all this I did digital PR stuff with some big ol’ PR firms.

I’m currently researching a PhD with Royal Holloway‘s New Political Communication Unit. My research focuses on the mediation of power within networked media environments. I’m particularly interested in assemblage theory; post-hegemony, framing and actor-network theory as potential ways to interpret power within the social web (whatever that means).

I’ve authored academic research examining the shifting role of political communications in the online space and presented at international conferences.

I’m a former Non-Executive Director with the Open Rights Group, a UK based digital rights NGO which campaigns to protect civil liberties threatened by the poor implementation and regulation of digital technology.

I also sit on the Chartered Institute of Public Relation’s Social Media Advisory Panel.

Oh yeah, the views expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.

For more information drop me an email: simon [dot] collister [at] gmail [dot] com