Social Media Immediate Future

Social Media

We recently added a new page to the immediate future blog, a social media dashboard for the 2010 UK general election. The dashboard pulls together data from various sources to provide a quick visual overview of which of the three main political parties are generating the most conversations in…

The new Buzz module will allow all 176 million users of Google’s Gmail service to see their friends’ live status updates, and share photos and videos. Sound familiar? Been there, done that, got the Facebook/Twitter account already? With social media success stories like Facebook claiming 400 million…

With Obama’s ‘masterful use of social media’ and the tweets of his 3 million Twitter fans sealing the election of the Democrats’ golden ticket, can our politicians and parties emulate this success and seduce the online masses and turn them into advocates? There’ll be…

I’ve always been intrigued by the use of competitions as a PR tool. How effective are they in reaching the right people for your brand, and do people take notice of much else other than the prize on offer? With this in mind, I wanted to look at…

February marks a milestone in the social networking calendar as Facebook celebrates its birthday. The site turned six last week and is showing impressive figures of late, with double the amount of users (now standing at 400 million worldwide), compared to this time last…

Last week saw the announcement in the press of the Indian Premier League’s plan to stream the whole of the 2010 tournament live via YouTube. As many commentators have noted over the past week, this calls into question the whole notion of…

Summary Sidewiki allows consumers to leave public comments on a sidebar attached to your organisation’s website You have no ability to delete or moderate these comments You can respond to comments, and as the owner of the website you can post a message which will always be displayed at the…

Just for fun I thought I’d use Google Trends to compare the leading social networks in terms of how much traffic they’re getting from UK web users. This first chart shows that Bebo and MySpace both declined at a fairly similar rate over the past 12 months, while Twitter has…

You may have read that Facebook recently added a new feature which allows you to ‘tag’ other users in updates, which works in the same way as Twitter’s @ reply feature. We think this will have a significant impact on brands which are active on Facebook. How does the new…

I read an interesting post at SEOmoz about the different factors which influence how valuable a link is in terms of improving the target page’s search engine rankings, and wanted to share it with my colleagues. But being a busy lot I knew they probably wouldn’t have…

Last week Google quietly added an interesting new feature to its Insights for Search tool, predictions of future search trends. If you don’t already use Insights, you should, it’s a useful tool for monitoring search trends in order to get a good picture of how consumer interest…

Following the release of our Truth about Twitter report recently, we were contacted by Guy Stephens, the Online Help Manager of mobile phone retailer, The Carphone Warehouse, who wanted to highlight some of his company’s experience of using Twitter to support its customer service operation. Since we’re not planning to…

Here at immediate future we think that the best way of measuring how well you’re doing on Twitter is by looking at the number of times you get retweeted. As we’ve previously written, retweets are the means by which messages spread virally across Twitter, so the more interesting your conversations…

Newspapers, as everybody knows, are still struggling to get to grips with the internet. For a few years they threw all of their resources into establishing a strong online presence and trying to pull in as big an audience as possible, under the optimistic belief that if enough people were…

According to the latest predictions from research firm, Forrester, social media marketing spend in the US will rise from $716 million in 2009 to £3,113 million in 2014. The accuracy of these figures may be up for debate – all the research in the world isn’t going…

Over the past year social media gurus have been banging the Twitter drum very loudly, and everybody in the PR and marketing industry must by now be at least dimly aware that they need to pay attention to the service. But apart from the small handful of high profile case…

A lot of people in the PR industry view search engine optimisation (SEO) as something of a voodoo dark art and, consequently, are afraid of tackling it. The main problem with the SEO industry is that unless you already know a lot about the subject, it’s kind of hard to…

There’s been a huge amount of discussion about how Twitter can be used most effectively for online PR and marketing, and there’s no shortage of interest in the subject since the mainstream media became obsessed with the platform. The only problem is that most of the current analysis is either…

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the purpose of online PR these days. Too many people think that the sole job of online PR is improve the client’s search engine optimisation and help drive traffic to their website. Granted, SEO and online PR do go hand in…

Flog Definition: When a marketing bod pretends to be a 12-year-old computer nerd and leaves made-up reviews of his own products all over the blogosphere – it’s known as a fake blog or flog. Like fake hair, fake nails and fake tans – fake…

Whilst reading the econsultancy.com online PR benchmarking report, it struck me that PRs and brand marketers were still talking a different language. Clients wanting increased brand mentions online are met with agencies delivering blogger relations. Those asking for brand reach are offered optimised…

Let’s be honest about this, on the whole the PR industry is not welcome in social media. People consider their blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter streams to be their personal space, and they don’t want us oily spin-merchants barging in and shoving our brand messages up in…

If you’re still struggling to understand why Twitter might be a useful PR tool, you should probably take a moment to understand the concept and implications of the phenomenon of re-tweeting. It’s a very simple premise: John finds something he likes on the internet, so he writes a Twitter post…

Just before Christmas, we experimented with some new brainstorming techniques across a number of clients. It got me thinking how there is a lot more to a creative brainstorm when you are planning for social media ideas. Offline, a PR brainstorms rely upon understanding a client: its business or products, its audience, and its requirements. In addition, a good knowledge of what is newsworthy, the media and what is currently capturing the headlines is essential. Of course, this knowledge is necessary for online PR brainstorms too, but you have to add to the mix with a more detailed understanding of social media.

Sadly I missed being on Ian's NMK panel for 'Clients in the Wild' as I just had over 200 staples taken out after an op. But it seems the discussion and subsequent blog by Will McInnes has created a stir - causing several blogging PRs some deeper introspection. Antony Mayfield summarises the issues up rather eloquently. Like Antony , I too am an optimist. I also lived through the similar, if not so public, growing pains of the digital ad agency industry. Back in the 90s these start-ups and specialists departments were dismissed by the powerful TV ad world. And we all know how that has changed now. We now have a very different marketing landscape with digital taking the lead and the more handsome budgets.

A much cleaner Netimperative site launched today. Hurrah says those of us who have struggled with the old one for ages. A rather snazzy blog style and seems to be a bit faster to load too.

Daryl Wilcox has launched video on his site DWpub.com in series called ‘Experts in Communication’ . The whole thing kicks off with a two part video interview with Antony Mayfield explaining why he took his…

A survey by Webitpr and noted on E-consultancy.com reveals that traditional PRs think that fellow practitioners are incapable of performing comprehensive online PR campaigns.Having spoken to many hard working, imaginative, and successful PRs over the years, it is clear that the PR…

Just gave this presentation at the Online Marketing Show. Not sure it makes a lot of sense without the banter over the top, but I thought I would share. The slides really fall into four categories: How brands are performing in social media The changing landscape online How you can trigger…

Our latest research looking at brand conversation in social media shows that techie companies, [tag]Google[/tag], [tag]Apple[/tag], [tag]Yahoo! [/tag]and [tag]Microsoft[/tag], take the lead in terms of brand mentions in blogs, social networks and photo and video sharing sites.The study, launched at the Online Marketing Show examines the [tag]Interbrand Top 100 global…

Positive and negative comments in groups on social network sites, such as [tag]Facebook[/tag], [tag]Flickr [/tag]and [tag]MySpace[/tag] reveal [tag]Disney[/tag], [tag]Nintendo[/tag] and [tag]Google[/tag] are the most popular brands. This comes from our latest research, [tag]Brands in Social Media[/tag]. [tag]Social networking[/tag] groups are proving very popular in the UK. They are a very…

On an advanced panel discussion on Wednesday at OMS. I shall be discussing the role of brands in social media with Stefan Glaenzer – Chairman, Last.fm Philip Wilkinson – co-founder, Crowdstorm Russel Davies – Blogger & Marketer Full topic is: What is the role of brands when blogs, social networks…

We are launching research exclusively at the Online Marketing show this week. The study looks at the Interbrand top 100 global brands, to reveal which brands have the largest share of voice and the most positive conversations. The report measures brand mentions across…

Trevor Cook and Lee Hopkins at the Corporate Engagement blog have just published their free (second edition) Social Media white paper. Updates on Second Life, Twitter and wikis and some new case study examples of Australian brands experimenting with social media.Great snapshot of the…

I am speaking with the fantastic Ruth Speakman from [tag]Sony Europe[/tag] (declare: client) at the [tag]IAB conference[/tag] on the 26th July. Together we are going to take a look at how Sony BRAVIA fuelled the conversation online by engaging with influencers. Often when I speak with marketers and PRs, they…

Just had an email from the chilled chaps at chinwag about the summer party. Apparently the Guardian and Brand Republic are joining the foray. Should be a busy night of networking, but if it is like the usual chinwag parties – it will be a boozy craic too. And I…

We’re exhibiting at the [tag]Online Marketing Show[/tag] this week. The event will be good. We went last year and found ourselves constantly in the throng of online marketers – discussing Online PR till we were hoarse. Last year, visitors wanted to know what online…

The Telegraph has launched a little bundle of blogs aimed at Entrepreneurs. By far the most interesting is launchpad, which allows businesses less than three months old to promote their company and include a web address. As Richard Tyler says, “And don’t…

Launching with four new categories, AOP publishing awards opens its doors for this year’s entrants. The new categories acknowledge that social media, is making a significant impact on the media business model. They include, use of video, best podcast,…

I am speaking this week at the IAB’s seminar, demystifying online PR. It is interesting that in their blurb on the seminar they say… Demystifying [tag]Online PR[/tag] – Online PR has changed the roles of creative and PR agencies in a client’s communication strategies.

A rather clever idea by our friends over at Picture Production Company has just launched: a [tag]wiki[/tag] for Fox’s Fantastic Four film release. The idea is simple, viewers can change, edit and submit to the website in…

Well I am posting again on [tag]infographics[/tag] sooner than I first expected! Two separate initiatives have recently gone live on the BBC – showcasing great use of visual online tools. The first is a visual timeline allowing…

Superb video from Geert Desager. Simple, effective, story telling at its best… The Break Up Uploaded by geertdesager © geertdesager, The Break Up, Video …

Anthony Lilly of Magic Lantern has a column in today’s Guardian looking at the explosion in online video. He suggests that the amount of content now online has resulted in us viewers not being able to find the balanced view: the facts. And that with no editorial…

[tag]Digital marketing[/tag] agencies are increasingly looking to tap into the conversation on [tag]social media[/tag]. Those that have expanded beyond the marketing push are reaping the rewards and finding that [tag]buzz [/tag]around online campaigns can dramatically shift perceptions, drive visitors and enhance objectives. I am on a panel at the next…

Emily Bell has run an article in today’s Media Guardian commenting on the Guardian’s new look homepage that grabbed my attention. Most interesting is a point referenced to Jeff Jarvis, highlighting the recent drop in importance for the homepage. Visitors to…

Engaging online really does mean you need a thick skin. Well the Guardian does at the moment, since it launched its new look website last week. This article from the Guardian…

A roundtable from e-consultancy (declare: they are a partner) reveals that future thinking of some of the digital industry’s forward thinking players. What strikes me is that throughout…