Archive for April, 2010
Co-developer of the World Wide Web discusses Facebook and privacy
April 30th, 2010
I’ve just come across a fascinating interview with Robert Cailliau, a Belgian computer scientist who, together with Sir Tim Berners Lee, developed the World Wide Web almost 20 years ago. The video was taken by Robin Wauters for Techcrunch.com, during The Next Web conference that has taken place in Amsterdam this week.
If you’re short of time, scroll to the 5.38 mark where Robert explains why he’s not on Facebook, and offers his view on how social networks need to change their position on privacy.
In regards to Facebook, Robert says: “I can get in, but I can’t get out. I don’t know what happens to my data.â€
He also goes onto talk about Skype which apparently refused to take his identifier off once he closed his account. “You have no control. You cannot buy something a la carte. You have to agree to the whole block and go in and be bound hands and feet to their terms of service, which is something that I think has to change…we should seriously look at all of these social networks.”
Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up (30-04-2010)
April 30th, 2010
Welcome to another instalment of the ‘Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up’.
1. Twitter Buttons is a simple tool that allows you to input your Twitter username, after which you get a choice of designs for a ‘follow me’ button to add to your blog. Example below:
2. PDF Cast allows you to add PDF files of upto 10mb, or 100mb if you register, offering another place to syndicate your documents, which are also searchable via categories.
3. A little bit of fun for you. Use the Geocities-izer to make your website look awful. Take a look at the New York Times make over.
4. Twitter is the clear favourite but Tumblr is still well worth a look, here is a great tool that lets you update Tumblr from your desktop: Tumbleezee
5. Ghostrec is essentially a screen recording tool that works out where your users go, so you can figure out if parts of your website navigation are working or not.
Social Media post of the week: B2B Reputation Management using Social Media Monitoring
SEO post of the week:130+ Free SEO Web Tools and Search Engine Optimization
More of the same next week.
Facebook application review: Like Button
April 26th, 2010
Let me begin by being clear from the off that by ‘Like button’, I’m not referring to the Facebook share icon that you see on various blog posts, an example of which can be seen on the right-hand side of this post. I’m actually referring to the range of news stories that are shared via Facebook share icons called Like Button.
Overview
The Like button has a set of miniature Facebook type pages set inside it. The first page you come to has a general subset from news sites such as CNN, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal etc. This can easily be changed to sub categories such as Technology.
Inside each miniature news fan page you get a breakdown of the news from that source, as well as a summary of how many times it has been shared on Facebook. Another nice addition is the ability to search on who is talking about that brand’s news within Facebook.
The good
- Great selection of new categories and sources, and you can also request more
- Clean and functional design
- Excellent search functionality
- A good source of trending topics
- The ability to add your own site and find out how many times your content has been shared on Facebook
The bad
- The name is not ideal. I would have preferred a more relevant title such as: Most shared news (on Facebook)
Final thoughts
This is certainly a site that I will be visiting again and recommending to my colleagues and clients alike.
iPad expert review by Publishing Perspectives, Frankfurt Book Fair
April 25th, 2010
Hannah Johnson from the Frankfurt Book Fair publishing associates Publishing Perspectives has posted an excellent, balanced review of the iPad as a reading tool.
Memo to Steve Jobs: there’s a gap in the market: something that will sit between the iPhone and the iPad in size and weight 
– OMG, that’s the Microsoft Courier.
I just weighed my copy of Different - it comes in at 14oz (397g), about the same as the Courier. The iPhone is 4.8oz (135g); the iPad is a ‘whopping’ 1.6lb (730g). So the iLite would need to be around the weight of a paperback novel, say 11oz (312g).
Here’s Hannah’s take on the iPad:
Industry Challenge: can’t measure social media ROI
April 23rd, 2010
Yes I know, social media ROI, a very difficult subject, and I’m actually in the camp that believes social media cannot have an accurate, catch-all, ROI equation, not in the truest sense of either term anyway. So, was the title just an attempt to grab your attention? Maybe, but more importantly it was the industry challenge that Jeremiah Owyang highlighted when launching his new Altimeter Report: Social Marketing Analytics, which he announced yesterday.
Jeremiah has joined forces with John Lovett (ex-Forrester analyst) and Eric Peterson (ex-Jupiter analyst) both from Web Analytics Demystified. The report builds on Charlene Li’s (Altimeter founder and ex-Forrester Analyst) framework, and aims to measure the rapidly changing social media marketing space. A snap shot is included below.
Jeremiah sets the scene with: “Marketers around the globe are ranging from toe dipping to jumping all the way into the social marketing space -yet most lack a measurement yardstick. While experiments can fly under the radar for a short term, without having a measurement strategy, you run the risk of not improving what you’re doing, justifying investments, and the appearance of being aloof to upper management. To be successful, all programs (even new media) must have a measurement strategy, and we’ve done just that.”
The framework shown above includes KPI formulas which are designed to form the basis of internal measurement systems.”
If you are interested in learning more you can review the slide share presentation which is basically the full report, and attend the webinar, which will take place on June 3rd, titled;’ Social Marketing Analytics: A New Framework for Measuring Results in Social Media.
In terms of social media measurement, this is one of the fullest and most in-depth reports I’ve seen. That may put you off, but don’t think it’s all talk and no action; there are practical insights and relevant rules that any social media marketer will find useful and be able to apply to their specific role or campaign. This isn’t a catch all metric, but a guideline for KPIs.
So, if you truly want to understand the opportunities surrounding social media measurement, don’t try to wrap a traditional ROI model around a social campaign, start by reading this report and open up your understanding.
Steve Jobs, Apple, insanely great friends and how to live your life
April 23rd, 2010
I caught up with two old journalist colleagues, good friends, last night – Merlin John and Sean Coughlan. We put the world to rights, celebrated Sean’s promotion to education Correspondent at the BBC, and argued geek-pop-politics until forever.
We most definitely raised our voices around the subject of Steve Jobs and Apple; I found myself trying to defend the insanely great man against accusations that Apple had moved away from education, was trying to take over and control the Web, and that the iPad sucked.
One point we did agree on was the potential for the iPad and other slates to give publishers a lifeline through connections to new and old readerships. Sean’s been busy writing books, available online only so he has a keen interest in how this market will develop. Whether Jobs wants to and can effectively wall the internet garden is still up for debate but for now, for me, he remains a hero.
This morning I replayed the Stanford University video to remind myself why I respect Steve Jobs so much – if you have time, it just might be the best 14mins 30 secs you’ve spent. This is the way I’d like to live my life, most certainly.
Creative electronics-related social media video campaigns
April 20th, 2010
Following on from our Creative computing-related social media video campaigns post, here are some more creative ideas to inspire your next campaign.
Below are some of the electronics-focused videos currently doing the viral rounds. Look out for the Hardest Hockey shot ever!
Brand: Samsung
Brand: Samsung
Brand: Toshiba
Brand: Olympus
Brand: Microsoft
Brand: Google
FIFA backs Global Action Week to keep education at top of agenda with 1 Goal campaign
April 19th, 2010
Today (April 19th) marks the start of Global Action Week 2010 organised by Global Campaign for Education (GCE) – to highlight the fact the 774 million adults cannot read or write.
Global Action Week will put pressure on governments around the world to keep their education finance promises. There has been detailed background preparation over the past nine months. More information is the GCE website.
But the aim is to extend this further, using the World Cup in South Africa as a platform to keep global education development at the front of governments’ minds.
The World Cup kicks off in Johannesburg and Cape Town on Friday June 11th and global football body FIFA is fully backing the campaign.
It’s at the very least a welcome move for FIFA, which garners a lot of bad press, and shows the power of global brands to make a difference, while fostering a positive view of themselves.
Interestingly, FIFA itself is supporting the campaign quietly. This morning, there was nothing visible on its website to mark the start of the campaign – an opportunity missed?
High-profile supporters also include Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Gordon Brown (UK Prime Minister), Hilary Clinton (US Secretary of State) and Robin van Persie (Arsenal FC). No prizes for guessing which football teams my sons support!
You can see the full list of supporters here.
Today’s campaign launch also reminded me that while the focus is naturally on developing countries, literacy is a concern for all nations, a point made gently but tellingly by Lisa Adams, who commented on our Brian Solis Social Media Optimisation blog.
Lisa helps to run a literacy campaign in Kingsport, Tennessee that desperately needs help with many things, including website development.
The action week’s highlight is the world’s largest single lesson with school children across the globe involved in ideas around the topic “1 GOAL: Lesson for All†– linked with the World Cup build-up, which provide a perfect focus for education needs in developing countries.
The GCE says that this year is ‘make or break’ for global education development, buffeted by the economic downturn and at risk from governments focussing on other agendas.
The 2010 focus is on education financing and the campaign will be a precursor to the larger 1GOAL: Education for All campaign.
Global Action Week participation has grown from 2 million people in 2003 to over 14 million in 2009 – this year, the target is 30 million.
Today, I feel very lucky.
Nurturing client/PR agency relationships
April 16th, 2010
Yesterday I worked from the office of my client Collective – a digital creative agency based in Farringdon. It was a highly productive and rewarding day, and I walked away feeling inspired and full of ideas for the campaign. We plan to make it a regular thing – a decision that both parties are really excited about.
This is not a new approach for Liberate Media – in the past we have worked regular days in the offices of some of our larger clients. However from experience, it’s an approach that PR agencies often shy away from for obvious logistical and budgetary reasons, but I thought it might be worth spelling out the reasons why it can be worth considering.
- Re-energising a campaign – no matter how good a PR you are, campaigns always need fresh thinking and new leases of energy. Spending time in a client office can be an effective way of gaining new insight into what they are working on, and hearing what they think about issues affecting them.
- Gathering campaign assets – for a client like Collective, where visual assets are the name of the game, spending time with their design team is invaluable to understanding the campaign assets that we have access too.
- Meeting with their clients – in a B2B context, working internally can provide unique opportunity to meet with your client’s clients, and discuss opportunities for joint PR. If they are big brands, the opportunities can be endless.
- Gathering material for thought leadership – the best ideas always come out over a beer in the pub, but it’s not always possible to get that sort of time with a client…unless you’re spending regular time in their office. Having regular conversation with them will make sure that you’re inside their head when it comes to thought leadership.
- Building client confidence in social media – for many, engaging in social media is still very daunting. Being there physically to delegate responsibily and provide advice on how to use specific social media tools can be a highly useful exercise.
- Streamlining processes and procedures – the nitty gritty stuff can sometimes more easily be resolved once you are able to see how processes are working for your client, making it easier for you the PR to implement changes.
- Getting to know new senior people – when senior contacts change client-side, it can sometimes have an impact on the PR campaign, and lead to a time of adjustment. Have regular visibility internally is useful for staying on-top of key relationships.
This is not an exhaustive list, but hopefully paints of picture of why working regularly within client offices can be extremely effective. Please feel free to share any similar experiences that you may have had.
Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up (16-04-2010)
April 16th, 2010
Welcome to another instalment of the ‘Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up’.
1. Inboxlistening is a simple and effective keyword monitoring tool. Add your keyword and get instant streamed results from Google News, Google blogs and Twitter.
2. Fantastic free tool over at Youtube: Search Stories Video Creator, simply create searches to tell a story. Brilliant!
3. Another Google tool: Follow Finder find people with similar interest on Twitter to follow.
4. Tweemp is a no frills Twitter search engine -it feels surprisingly calming and uncluttered!
5. Twitify is a free tool to increase your followers, it follows users based on keywords matches.
Social Media post of the week: A List of Social Media Monitoring Tools | Social Media Answers
SEO post of the week: BruceClay – 21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites – Bruce Clay Blog
More of the same next week.