Sun reader vs Apple consumer

My own stereotypical view of a reader of The Sun doesn't match with my view of someone who consumes a lot of Apple products.

Unless I'm very, very wrong, there are two reasons why The Sun might've chosen to parody Apple in its video celebrating its 40th anniversary.

1. It's looking to extend its reach into a new demographic.
2. It's taking the piss.

Which one is it?

Five learnings from Gartner on social media's impact on PR

This week's webinar by James Lundy, managing VP of the high-tech and telecoms team at Gartner, contained some interesting insights into how analysts are viewing the future of influence. This is what he said...

1. The fight for the social profile is starting.

Social software, externally-facing customer communities and public social networks all collide at the ‘social profile’ – the bit the user owns and stores their personal data. That is where the new influence battleground is going to be.


2. Everyone in a company should be media trained.

Social networking has made everyone in your company a spokesperson. Some people they engage with might be journalists. As a result, everyone in the company should have a basic knowledge of media relations and the corporate messages.

3. Overreaction is a danger.

With so much being said about a brand, and so many ways to monitor every conversation, it’s tough to know when not to get involved. The web fosters overreaction, so companies need to pick battles carefully or they’ll get drawn into conversations that’ll do more harm than good.

4. A next big thing is ‘fourth generation collaboration’.

Aggregation and sharing of content and opinion across networks, firewalls and devices is what Gartner calls ‘fourth generation collaboration’. Lundy used the example of someone Yammering from within a company, then sharing that content across Twitter.

5. The Fiesta Movement 2011 was good social media marketing.

Lundy cited the Ford campaign (where members of the public were offered not-yet-released cars to borrow for six months and encouraged to document their application via video) as a great example of a big brand reaching out via social channels.

Apple's one-day UK sale

Mirroring the US-only shopping holiday Black Friday, Apple is once again cutting prices on its UK site for one day only (this Friday).

I hope Santa is reading this.

Video: Cop stuffs drunk bloke's head through window

Our public services don't get away with much nowadays thanks to almost everyone packing a video camera. In this video, a US transport policeman 'discourages' a semi-violent drunk from annoying fellow train passengers.

But is it too much force or just a miscalculation?



I vote miscalculation.

I also vote that the best quote from the cameraman is either "Game over, drunk man" or "This is awesome! This is the best end to my day ever!"

TechCrunch beats FT to the punch?

Popular tech news site TechCrunch took a swing at the Financial Times today, claiming it scooped a Microsoft / News Corp agreement days before the paper 'revealed' the deal.

"Congratulations to the Financial Times. It’s taken them 10 days and three reporters to confirm our previous story," says the post by TechCrunch's European editor, Mike Butcher. It also adds: "The FT has no other new information that hasn’t been previously reported."

Why is this post particularly interesting? Certainly not because of TechCrunch's baiting of the traditional news outlets and processes. (It does that regularly and seems to thrive on drama - even resulting in its US-based founder saying that he will ignore all news embargoes.

The key takeaway from this cleverly-written attack is that the deal itself would form the basis of News Corp de-indexing its news articles from Google, making them exclusive to Microsoft's search engine, Bing, as premium content.

This, argues TechCrunch, will see the world of news split into two - 'slow news', churned out by big publishing houses and released at a controlled rate, and sites like its own, which rely on speed. The very deal they are reporting on appears - quite conveniently - to be a prime example of this polarisation already happening.

With the established publishing houses re-evaluating their distribution models and the world of news continuing to accelerate and fragment, TechCrunch is throwing down the gauntlet. While the FT wins on trust, analysis and impartiality against gossipy, unpredictable sites like TechCrunch, the uneasy balance of power might not last for long.

All TechCrunch needs to do is temper that gung-ho approach to journalism to bring it on to the right side of trustworthy. All the traditional news outlets need to do is work out how to deliver content more quickly using a viable online model that doesn't put them out of business...

Presentation: Influence is influence

Here's a presentation two of my Studio D colleagues gave yesterday on 'social media and the role of public relations'.

View more presentations from WE Studio D.

Top ten social networking annoyances

[Begin TOTP chart music now.]

10. People tagging pictures so hideous that your own mother wouldn't admit to knowing you.
9. @idiotfriend What lightsaber through yonder window breaks? #ifshakespearewrotestarwars
8. Twitter account status: Rate limit exceeded.
7. The fail whale.
6. @idiotfriend 'Good morning Twitterland!'
5. 'Awaiting friend confirmation.' Why? What's wrong with me?
4. @sexygurl1984 hi @prgeek check out my pics xxx
3. Motivational speakers. Ban them all.
2. 'Hey! I've added you to my mafia family!' Does that mean I can have you killed?
1. Motherf***ing Farmville.

They're mainly Twitter-based, aren't they?

Incredible video of the EyeWriter project

Sometimes, tech takes unexpected leaps that you can see making a huge difference.

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Think before you sync

I saw an interesting Facebook status update / Tweet / blog post from Wadds yesterday that raised the perennial - and slightly self-indulgent - question about whether to cross-post your thoughts across all your social networks.

The issue has come to the fore again thanks to LinkedIn's decision to hook up with Twitter, allowing you to sync updates between the sites.

While there is no set rule, here's my foolproof (ahem) formula to use as a guide.

Score yourself 1 for 'no' and 2 for 'yes'.

1. Do you modify how you speak at work compared to when at home / among friends?
2. Are you hating your job, or looking for a new one?
3. Have you added any Facebook friends to a 'limited profile' list?
4. Would using Twitter at work be for personal reasons only?
5. Do you work in an industry / job that is not in communications?
6. Would you say you were an outspoken person?
7. Are you yet to start your own blog?
8. Is your mobile phone something other than an iPhone?
9. Are you over 30?
10. Do you like a drink?

Results:

If you scored less than 12: SYNC.

You are fully in control of your message, and need to spread it far and wide - possibly as part of your job. Make sure you stay interesting, on-brand and inoffensive.

If you scored 12-15, THINK BEFORE YOU SYNC.

You are a borderline case. You should be keeping all your networks up to date with your life, but you risk spamming your mates. Use tools that allow you to sync selectively.

If you scored more than 15, DO NOT SYNC.

Your networks don't naturally overlap, so keep your lives separate. Otherwise, you'll probably just get drunk and accidentally Tweet your boss and tell them how much you hate your job.

Good luck out there.

Balls: Whose were the biggest at Social Media 09?

Conferences are tough. Social Media 09 was no exception. The speaker programme was non-stop, the room rammed and boiling hot, and the refreshments sparse.

But we had fun. The live 'Twitterfall' - a stream of related tweets on a big screen - was a constant source of amusement for the audience and a relentless distraction for the speakers. The content was, on the whole, very interesting. I've written a post over at the very excellent Reputation Online summing up each presentation.

One interesting element that's been doing the rounds since the event has been the graphic demonstrating the influence of all the Twitterers who were covering the goings on (click to zoom).



It's a really great way of illustrating Twitter conversations. Well done to David Barrowcliff for creating the graphic. In his words, "I figured out who mentioned who & worked out those with highest betweenness centrality". Er, OK.

Anyway, I'm sure they are supposed to be 'spheres of influence', but they look like balls to me. Check out the size of mine!

Labour is next to jump on the Jedward bandwagon

From the sumblime to the ridiculous - The Labour Party's current home page leads with a giant Jedward-based jibe at the Tories.



I'm logging off now as the Internet has finally become too weird.

(But not before a quick full screenshot as evidence.)

Any Junk joins the Jedward juggernaut

Fair play for Any Junk for jumping on X Factor's rubbish act 'Jedward' for this viral video. Simple but effective.

Who you gonna call?

Who you gonna call?,
originally uploaded by PR Geek.

Quick thoughts on the Social Media 09 mutiny

Having a live Twitterfall on the big screen at Social Media 09 has been great so far. It has allowed real-time feedback and discussion between an interested audience and the organisers.

Must be weird for the speakers to see exaclty that the audience members are thinking in real time. Particularly during the handover from Sarah Beeny to the person who used Dita von Teese to promote Wonderbras.

The Twitterfall was taken over by people suggesting that putting a celebrity at the heart of a campaign doesn't really have anything to do with social media. Yes, you can make content shareable, you can use social networks and you can measure the outcome. But it would all have been pretty academic without the celeb in the middle...

Twitter + @BrentSpiner = mental coincidence

This is an actual screenshot of @booper's twitter account after he called me a geek for using a picture of @brentspiner in a blog post. Who was the last person on his following list to tweet? AAAARGH WEIRD!

Disregard data at your peril?

My colleague Karla Wachter wrote a dramatic piece today on the Waggener Edstrom Studio D blog today about data (OK, not Commander Data off Star Trek - but I thought that's what she meant at first).

She was, in fact, talking about the often ignored area of data analytics in PR. I'm the first to admit that I'd rather spend my time creatively brainstorming campaigns than worrying about the metrics that underpin them. But I also know that Karla's got a point when she says "data is an engine that fuels innovation and creativity."

But there can, she says, be too much of a good thing:

Of course there is a dark side to data. With the wealth of data accessible to us, we now are at risk of data overload. How do you know what data is the right data, what conversations are the most meaningful, who is my target audience, who is influencing them, where and how should you engage, how are my efforts driving tangible business actions and outcomes… And the list of questions goes on and on and on.

I agree. Digital PR has opened up new ways of measuring effectiveness to a group of people not used to measuring stuff. Long gone are the days of the sole remit of PR being 'awareness'. Now, conversations are monitored, influence closely measured, and decisions tracked back to the message that initiated them.

Which is why we're spending so much time creating the services to make dealing with data second nature, automated and easy. Thanks to the tools that Karla's team have created - including one launching next week that I just couldn't possibly tell you about - people like me can get on with the important task of running creative campaigns.

I'm off to go imagineering.

Modern Warfare meets the modern media

In what has been described as the biggest computer game launch of all time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launched at midnight to a fanfare of glitz, glamour and beautiful people.

Predicting 3m sales across the UK, Activision rolled out the marketing big guns, including sending tanks into London's Leicester Square manned by legions of chiselled warriors for a showbiz party hosted by Vernon Kay and featuring Dizzee Rascal and a camouflage carpet (instead of a red one). They even managed to get an MP to complain. This was surely a fantastic end to a slick and well-executed media assault.

But BBC News reminds us all that this is just a computer game, and not a Hollywood blockbuster, with its choice of photo to accompany the news story on its mobile site.

Isolating the profile of a Twitter user

Based on information gleaned from Viralheat, here is the exact consumer footprint of a Twitter user.

1. They make calls on their iPhone or BlackBerry or Android or Nokia or Motorola device.
2. They're calling on T-Mobile or O2.
3. They watch YouTube or CNN or Disney or MTV or BBC.
4. They drink Starbucks or Coke or Pepsi and eat in KFC.
5. They drive a Toyota or Ford or BMW or Honda or Nissan.
6. They wear Gucci or Nike or Chanel or Tiffany (possibly simultaneously).
7. They shop on Amazon or Ebay or in Ikea.
8. They have an Apple or a Dell or a Sony or a Samsung computer.
   
9. Their computer has Microsoft installed and Intel inside.
10. They read Mashable or TechCrunch or The Guardian.
11. They fly British Airways.
12. They listen to Spotify.
13. They play with Lego.
14. They Digg you.
15. They talk about Twitter (a lot).
16. They are 31.
    

(I made this up in three minutes, based on precisely no analysis whatsoever. Cool eh? Terrifyingly, when applied to my life it's 100% accurate. And I lie about my age.)

The Economist gets down with the kids

I picked up my free 'sampler' copy of The Economist this morning from the cheery chaps who seem to be outside my tube station every day now. (Despite honing their freesheet skills on Stylist, Shortlist, Sport and The Evening Standard they were struggling to give this one away.)

Having read it on the journey in, I can only imagine the editorial meeting that resulted in this 22-page taster.

"Let's give away a free copy of The Economist, with stuff in that'll win new readers."

"How about just giving next week's away for free?"

"Nah - we need to act cool. So, you know, they buy us next time."

"Well... We did that article about legalising drugs, like, in March?"

"Brilliant. Stick it in. And how about that article we did about Heathrow where we suggested the third runway was a bad idea and called Gordon Brown 'as noxious as a jet engine's exhaust?"

"The kids'll go crazy! And let's reprint that one we did in the summer about the Greek trying to steal stuff from the British Library. Just in case we get some arty types."

"Hmm. But what about the finance pages? What if they think we go on too much about economics?"

"Don't worry - there's that one we wrote the global prices of Big Macs in July. They'll dig that."

"Awesome. Now let me just rustle up an editor's letter that explains what a 'leader' is..."

Hyundai viral hijack is inspired

You've probably seen the video doing the rounds of the BMW 4x4 attempting to park and destroying a few cars in the process. In this small but perfectly-formed marketing gem, Hyundai respond by giving one of the victims - a customer of theirs - a new car.



(Via Mashable.)

God is second only to Apple

I was just trying out some new social media tools and found this:



It seems God is the second most discussed 'brand' online. Perhaps it's time for some more celestial spin?

TfL bosses bin Kelly Brook's buns after Tube boob

Posters of Kelly Brook advertising her naked appearance in West End play Calendar Girls have been deemed too raunchy for London Tube passengers, according to every single newspaper in the known universe today.

Following alleged complaints from Transport for London, the advertisers have been asked to enlarge the pictures of the iced buns she is holding to ensure the ad complies with its policies.

Full marks to whoever engineered this story. Not only does it manage to fuse gratuitous pictures of Kelly Brook's cleavage with limitless use of moral outrage (making it OK to show the pictures) but it went national the day before she made her debut in the show.

Note: PR does not get much better than this.

Outraged Balham residents scramble for the truth

Today, Boris Johnson launched Oxford Street’s new ‘scramble crossing’ by banging a giant gong.

The diagonal pedestrian crossing has been heralded by many of the news outlets as a copy of the famous walkway in Shibuya, Tokyo. The Metro even went as far as naming it, slightly ambiguously, as a ‘first’.

Luckily in almost all the comments under the stories, the general public set things straight by pointing out that Balham, far away from Oxford Street in SW12 (the horror!), forced people to scramble across the road in 2004.

The idea was first raised in a Wandsworth Council meeting in 2002, according to the meeting minutes published today by local councillor James Cousins in his post on the subject.

Best of luck to the ‘triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and good old-fashioned common sense’.

I have lived in and around SW12 for a decade and hardly anyone uses the diagonal crossing due to, as far as I can tell, the terror one feels when one gets half-way across.

Can PR pounds fuel healthy debate?

It’s National Obesity Week this week – a week of raising awareness of the problem of obesity in the UK, organised by the National Obesity Forum (NOF) and supported by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

(The NPA’s support has, I’m sure, nothing to do with the global market for weight loss treatments being worth upwards of $500 billion by 2014.)

But while we’re yet to see the fruits of the NOF’s no-doubt tireless promotional campaigning to force the obesity issue into our nation’s news, it has fallen to Tanita, a PR-friendly manufacturer of ‘precision electronic measuring devices and health-related diagnostic tools’ (also known as scales) for the quick win.

“Tanita proudly donates time, equipment, funding, and other resources to a variety of community and school events at local, state, national, and international levels,” says the manufacturer's website in between invites to follow it on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and news of its latest Body Fat Perception Poll.

Aside from the wonderful headline in The Express (and the picture of four particularly slim women), the survey results have also appeared in The Daily Mail and a couple of other small news sites. I’m sure it’ll roll on as the sites pick up and syndicate the story.

In a crowded media market, it is no longer enough to be running a campaign designed to improve the public health to win news headlines. A communications-focused company with a survey budget and some results that a subeditor can turn into titillating type are necessary fuel to the marketing engine.

The result is, on the surface, a win/win – the NOF gets more exposure for National Obesity Week while Tanita enjoys a nice PR hit that plants it in the nation’s mind as a manufacturer with a social conscience. But is it really anything more than product placement at the expense of discussing the wider health issues?

Now, where can I buy some scales for my new bathroom?