Archive for June, 2010
From funny cats to Internet phenomenon
June 15th, 2010
Remember the cat-caption images? If you’re not familiar I’ve included a few examples below. They are from a very popular site called I Can Has Cheezburger, which pairs photos of cats with quirky captions.
There is an interesting story over at the NY Times about Mr. Huh, who saw the potential in the site and purchased it 10 years ago. It goes on to say that traffic to the site was so good that it went on to be the inspiration for another 53 similar user generated content sites. All of which generated income via ad revenue from day one.
His other sites include:
Fail Blog, which chronicles disastrous mishaps and general stupidity in photos and video.
Daily Squee, with pictures of cute animals.
There I Fixed It, for photos of bad repair jobs.
It just goes to show that it’s not always the most relevant, social or beautiful sites and applications that succeed on the web - finding a niche is just as important.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Editor tells staff not to use silly words like “tweet”
June 14th, 2010
Here’s a story that caught my attention over the weekend, The New York Times’ editor, Phil Corbet, sent a memo around to staff telling them not to use ‘tweet’ or similar words, which he referred to as “silly”.
Here is the memo:
How About “Chirp”?
Some social-media fans may disagree, but outside of ornithological contexts, “tweet” has not yet achieved the status of standard English. And standard English is what we should use in news articles.
Except for special effect, we try to avoid colloquialisms, neologisms and jargon. And “tweet” — as a noun or a verb, referring to messages on Twitter — is all three. Yet it has appeared 18 times in articles in the past month, in a range of sections.
Of course, new technology terms sprout and spread faster than ever. And we don’t want to seem paleolithic. But we favour established usage and ordinary words over the latest jargon or buzzwords.
One test is to ask yourself whether people outside of a target group regularly employ the terms in question. Many people use Twitter, but many don’t; my guess is that few in the latter group routinely refer to “tweets” or “tweeting.” Someday, “tweet” may be as common as “e-mail.” Or another service may elbow Twitter aside next year, and “tweet” may fade into oblivion. (Of course, it doesn’t help that the word itself seems so inherently silly.)
“Tweet” may be acceptable occasionally for special effect. But let’s look for deft, English alternatives: use Twitter, post to or on Twitter, write on Twitter, a Twitter message, a Twitter update. Or, once you’ve established that Twitter is the medium, simply use “say” or “write.”
Techcrunch has a couple of updates on the story:
Update: Dave Itzkoff, who blogs for the New York Times, tweets that the report is indeed not true. Which makes it a perfect satirical piece worth sharing anyway. Update 2: Another New York Times staffer tells us privately that the memo is “100% real” and Itzkoff clarifies that it is not the memo’s existence he was denying, but that some journalists inside the NYT recognise “tweet” as a word and there is an internal debate ongoing about it.
Is it true or not? Whatever the case it is mildly amusing, and highly embarrassing for the NY Times, but hang on a sec maybe the guy has a point, will the vast majority of his readership know what “tweet” and similar words actually mean?
Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up (11-06-2010)
June 11th, 2010
Welcome to another instalment of the ‘Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up’.
1. Nurph is an instant chat site for you website/blog . Just add the code and when people visit your site they can speak with others that are already viewing your site.
2. The Twitter list Explorer, visualises the Twitter list. It shows the most active Twitter users on the list, as well as the direct conversations among them
3. Visited is a site that allows you to search for video based on your mood. Carry out a search using “funny”, “amusing” or “cool” as the keyword and be presented with the corresponding media straight away.
4. Privacy defender resets your Facebook privacy settings so that you have maximum control of your personal information:
- 1. Visit the PrivacyDefender Facebook page
- 2. Drag the grey button to your browser bookmarks bar
- 3. Click on the PrivacyDefender link to evaluate your current privacy settings
- 4. Choose what level of privacy you would prefer, and it will update your privacy settings
5. Twextra allows you to create a message that is more than 140 characters and then post it to Twitter. See the “How to” video here
Social Media post of the week: 5 Easy Steps to a Winning Social Media Plan
SEO post of the week: Effective Search Engine Optimization for Web Designers
More of the same next week.
Check out previous issues of the ‘Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up’
June 10th, 2010
In the Football/soccer world, Guillem Balague is a key fixture at Sky Sports, and a well respected journalist who, like many others, is using Twitter to voice his opinions, thoughts and share news.
Today he had a mini rant:
“Courtesy of Twitter, I`ve been getting more abuse from the Twitter tw*ts and toddlers because I`ve been reporting on Barcelona’s strategy for recruiting Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal.
Apparently, because I`m Spanish, I`m doing my bit for the Catalan club of which I must surely be a fan: because I`m from Barcelona. You couldn`t be more wrong. Is every Londoner and Arsenal fan?”
I shall Tweet no more, other than to link to an article in full. The internet has become a mine of mis-information and unless you read it here, or in an article with my name on the by-line, then the next time you read in a forum or a blog that ‘Balague says….’ – you can take it with a pinch of salt.
But when I report that candidates for the Barcelona presidency have a strategy for signing Cesc Fabregas, apparently I`m single handedly masterminding the downfall of Arsene Wenger.
The most interesting part for me was the “The internet has become a mine of mis-information” an issue that will pop up again and again I’m sure, and causes a lot of problems for individuals and brand’s alike - which is part of the reason why and understanding of the theories on online networks and online reputation management is so important!
Read the story in his own words
June 8th, 2010
Apple has at last announced the iPhone 4, which looks to be worth the wait. The initial reaction has been as expected - pretty good, with a lot of conversation surrounding the new features such as its “Retina display” “Face Time” functionality and even the colour. It comes in black or white!
Below are a series of charts taken from various online source trending the initial iPhone 4 buzz.
Social Mention sentiment is taken from 928 mentions, and from 424 unique authors.
Google Trends Hot Search.The iPhone 4 currently stands at 13th hottest search today.
NY Times most searched for. The iPhone currently stands at 13th
YouTube has the iPhone video by CBS currently as one of the most viewed in terms of popularity and views.
Trend search from the neilson Blog pulse service
And of course the obligatory Twitter trends search
Just for a good measure here is a neat round up from The Telegraph giving an overview of reviews
SEO site review session by Matt Cutts
June 7th, 2010
If you’re interested in SEO, and you should be if you understand the value of digital, here is a good video from Matt Cutts and his team.
He goes through a series of websites from all genres and gives helpful tips and advice on how each site could be better optimised. It’s over an hour long but well worth the watch. Interesting stuff!
Don’t fear the Ad guys, embrace integration
June 4th, 2010
If you’ve seen PR Week this week, you’ve seen the news that the Ad guys are coming, but what does that really mean?
The headline on the front page said it all: Top advertising agencies creep into PR territory as Karmarama has hired Shine Communications’ director Chris McCafferty to set up an integrated PR agency, and Beattie McGuinness Bungay is in the final stages of staffing up its in-house PR agency, BMB PR, not long after Resonate’s co-founder Graham Drew’s moved to sister advertising agency VCCP.
There’s also an interesting PR Week post on the subject from Adam Clyne.
So, does this mean the end for the PR agency, are advertising budgets stretched so far that Ad agencies are looking longingly at the comparatively small budgets awarded to PR agencies? Well no, I don’t think so. You can sleep safe in your bed PR boys and girls, for now…
However, what should be keeping you awake in your comfortable traditional PR world is that the rest of the marketing community is thinking bigger, much bigger. They are thinking integration.
Not just advertising with PR, but digital with PR and advertising, and marketing with digital and PR and advertising. This is far from a new move, and it’s certainly not the first time I’ve been banging on about it on the pages of this blog. The digital world has been going through this integration for some time, but this was just the beginning.
Yes, budgets are shrinking but I don’t think that’s the main force behind this move. Yes, the skills required to do our jobs effectively, whether that’s the job of an advertiser, PR, digital marketer or traditional marketer are coming closer together. And yes, the clients are working this out and developing briefs accordingly that call in a range of skills, but without the need for separate agencies that are expensive to hire and manage.
So, if you thought it was just the ad agencies that are after a slice of the PR market, I think it’s time to wake up, we’re all after a slice of each other’s market, not necessarily because of a strategic objective to take over another sector, but because the consumer doesn’t care where the message comes from. They’ll choose to consume the media the suits them best (and none of the above will cut it alone), the client doesn’t want to complicate agency management, or pay for it, and the bottom line is we should all have a range of skills that reflect the requirements of our clients and more importantly - their clients.
If you feel safe in your PR/Ad/marketing/digital environment enjoy it while it lasts, because like it or not, the move towards integration is coming, not just because of economic pressures, but because it simply makes sense.
Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up (04-06-2010)
June 4th, 2010
Welcome to another instalment of the ‘Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up’.
1. Swear Jar is a fun Twitter tool that will highlight any naughty words that you’ve used on Twitter, and if you have, why not donate to the Swear Jar charity of the month? Find out more here.
2. The Web.Informer button is a button/banner used to help you share your content to various social sites. The banner is particularly effective. Get the HTML code and see the banner in action here.
3. Howl is an interesting site. It basically allows you to add links to your profile which will then show up in full, you can also add notes to these links, the links are then automatically shared to your Facebook and Twitter streams.
4. UD.com name check allows you to find, check and secure:
- domain names
- social media user names and
- brand names (trademarks)
5. Who I Compete is an SEO tool designed to generate the seed list of your most successful competitors. It analyses a number of related search results pages and finds the domains that were lucky enough to get ranked for a number of those related search queries. Read more about how to use it here.
Social Media post of the week: 6 Most Powerful Search Engines for Social Networks
SEO post of the week: Is SEO Copywriting Just Good Copywriting?
More of the same next week.
Check out previous issues of the ‘Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up’
Popular sports-related viral videos
June 3rd, 2010
Following on from our Creative computing-related social media video campaigns , Creative electronics-related social media video campaigns post, Popular telecommunications viral videos and with the World’s biggest sporting event just around the corner, the World Cup, allow me present: Popular sports related viral videos. (The Nitro video is particularly funny)
Brand: Head
Brand: NBA
Brand: Nitro
Brand: International Olympic Committee
Brand: Cleveland Cavaliers