January is always an interesting month. The juxtaposition of emotional ‘spring cleaning’ that always goes on, combined with the release of budgets for new projects and activities, results in a flurry of activity, which allows us to revisit to same questions or issues with a particularly positive point of view. And perhaps thanks to the endorsement of the new POTUS, social media is being seen as an acceptable communications toolkit. We focus this month on four things: the intellectual (a report by the government which purports to convey how Britain will become a core player in the global economy); the casual (a social media application whose usage has gone ballistic in the last few weeks); the detail (a list of social media activities) and the downright obscure.
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A
Are you digital enough?
Yesterday saw the release of the much anticipated Digital Britain report. This reports outlines our Government’s plan to be at the “forefront of the global digital economy” and is one in a series of similar reports published by various quangos since the internet became mainstream back in the early nineties. Apparently we will all be digital by 2012, which is nice. It has received the usual barrage of criticism from a range of mainstream (and more obscure) journalists, but I’ll be withholding judgement until I’ve read it (a nice task for the weekend). Anyway, if you are interested, its there for the reading.
‘Tweeting’ goes mainstream
A while ago, we talked about Twitter in one of our Friday mails. Twitter is a social media application that allows users to post updates about what they are doing (a practice also known as micro-blogging) – try to think of it like updating your status on Facebook or LinkedIn. The key difference is that updates can be sent to and from your mobile phone, irrespective as to whether you have internet access or not. The service is free and users are restricted to 140 characters, but Twitter reserves the right to collect and use data.
I’ve avoided it for quite a while mainly because its has principally been a playground toy of journalists, celebs and the broader PR community, but over the past month, its usage has skyrocketed and it is now definitely a mainstream application that needs to be considered. What I find interesting is how people within organisations are using it as a form of direct sourcing – posting job requests via their company Twitter profile. To get you started, I’ve attached a couple of interesting examples here (Stephen Fry is understandably the most eloquent)
· Stephen Fry’s blog is the best example that I’ve come across that explains how to use Twitter (http://www.stephenfry.com/blog/2009/01/29/twitter/)
· Barack Obama (http://twitter.com/BarackObama)
· SAB Miller (http://twitter.com/sabmiller)
· Hodes (http://twitter.com/hodes)
A ‘couple’ of social media sites you might like
I got a call the other day from a senior Marketing Director at KPMG who had seen my response to a question on LinkedIn, found out that Hodes is a KPMG agency and contacted our client Alison to get my details. She was interested in looking at some examples of Social Media usage in the corporate world. Whilst trawling the web, I came across a very useful blog that outlines a huge list of activities and offerings. I’ve listed a couple below.
- Bank of America:
- Online video: Managers sing at a corporate meeting.
- Social networks: Small Business Community on Clearspace. Medal Me! Facebook application
- British Airways:
- Microblogging: Twitter account
- Social Networks: Metrotwin community
- GSK:
- Blogging: alliconnect.
- Social networks: myAlli weight loss community.
· Heinz.
o Online video: YouTube contest
- IBM.
- Microblogging: Smart SOA SocialNetwork ((S3N)) Team on Twitter.
- Online video: Rational Heroes machinima videos and Meet Mr. Fong on YouTube.
- Social networks: Rational Heroes community space.72
- Wikis: developerWorks.
- National Geographic:
- Mashups: Wildlife Filmaker
- Microblogging: Twitter account
- Online Video: Everyday Explorers, YouTube channel
- Social networks: Imbee, MySpace,
- Widgets: NGM Widgets, Facebook widget
Embrace your inner woman (http://accidentalcampposes.tumblr.com/)
As a very swift introduction to the harsh realities of lifelong commitment to one individual (congratulations, btw), Anthony has discovered a series of guerrilla attempts by his fiancée to ‘out’ him by posting a number of highly disingenuous photos. In an attempt to regain the upper hand, Anthony swiftly created a site dedicated to highlighting that all men should be in touch with their inner woman. So far only three submissions. Or perhaps I should use another word?