Do all blogs go to heaven?

When it comes to social media, it turns out I'm not so skeptical after all so this blog has run its course.

Sorry folks but illustrations are now by request only but you'll find  from me on Twitter @PRgirl85 or at http://blog.emlwildfire.com/ 

Twitter - a platform for flattery and fakery

Ah Twitter... great for breaking news isn't it? Apart from when international news outlet pick up a hastily written tweet and reports that the wrong person was killed. Such lazy journalism.

We'll forgive the overexcited journos for just a moment (here's looking at you, CNN) but another bizzare story to come out of the whole debacle is the misquoting of Martin Luther King Jr, or Mark Twain depending on what Twitter feed you are following.

While people thought they were quoting an established public figure, allegedly they were quoting Jessica Dovey who claims that she was the person who started the trend, saying that the lines got blurred between her words and Martin Luther King Jrs.

Social media - where quotation marks don't count and you can pretend to be whoever you want to be. At least until those social media libel laws kick in...

Ain't no spat like a Celeb Twitter spat....

Back when I was in school bullying was a dead arm or a Chinese burn but these days kids have all kind of new cruel and unusual punishments for one another. It's not just actual kids at it though, apparently those with the mental age of children are also engaged in cyber bullying.

Footballer Rio Ferdinand apparently got into a lot of trouble for attempting to get  #piershasmoobs trending on Twitter. The good folk at Twitter apparently didn't like that at all. Perhaps Piers Morgan complained.



Only two hours into this celebrity spat (which I'm sure will get much more interesting) but Piers has already got his mum involved. She told Rio to pick on someone his own size and Piers to pick on someone his own pay grade. Probably.

(Check @rioferdy5 and @piersmorgan for more... there ain't no spat like a Celebrity Twitter Spat).

Oversharing on social media - who, what, where, when, why?

One of the main issues I have with location based social media apps is that to use them, you must publicly tell the world where you are and what you are doing.

Some of my Facebook friends have a subtle way of sharing using Facebook Places so you get an update to say they're checked in at a train station or the airport so I know they're officially off on their holidays. I think that's sweet, but I don't like the fact that everyone else 'checked in' also knows that, or that they come up as a recent check in when you run a search on the venue.

Why is it that when it comes to social media there is no such thing as too much information? I really don't want to know what you had for dinner or every time you go somewhere. So stop clogging up my twitter feed.

Viral campaign by Tourism Ireland is just plain vile

I'm a proud Dublin girl who spent many a childhood holiday, weekend away and road trips in Ireland's various hot spots (no pun intended - the hot spots are just as rainy as the not so hot spots).

While I'm more than willing to do my bit to encourage tourism to my home country I'm a bit worried about Tourism Ireland's latest venture, a Facebook game in the style of FarmVille called Ireland Town - see for yourself here http://www.facebook.com/#!/DiscoverIreland. How much was some self proclaimed expert paid to come up with the name 'Ireland Town'? I shudder to think.

Tourism Ireland had their hearts in the right place but anyone who is persuaded to visit Ireland on the basis of this cliche ridden game will be sorely, sorely disappointed. You won't find the thatched cottage idyll of Ireland Town in a weekend to Dublin, I can tell you that for nothing. The game perpetuates so many cringy and outdated stereotypes of Ireland that it makes Disney's Darby O'Gill and The Little People look like a realistic representation of The Emerald Isle, even with Scottish Sean Connery and his dodgy accent.

If you want some actual travel advice for Ireland feel free to contact me on Twitter @PRgirl85 - I can tell you where to enjoy some real Irish craic but be warned, there will be no leprechauns whatsoever.

Customer service? We're too busy on Facebook....

It's sad but true - about half of my wardrobe comes from just one high street retailer. Thinking it was about time I got with the 21st century, I ordered a significant shop online. Big mistake. Me and this particular retailer are now not speaking...

A week and a half later and despite a dent in my bank balance there was no sign of the clothes.To the internet! No customer services number and the order tracking number I was given was getting me nowhere on the courier website.

I turned to Facebook to vent my frustration and got quite a quick response from someone with the authority to tell Customer Services to get their rear in gear and give me a call. We had plenty of issues to sort out but the end result is no clothes but at least I've been refunded. Not exactly a WIN in terms of customer satisfaction - I still have no clothes.

What really disappoints me is the fact I got a lot better service going through Facebook than I would have going to the local branch. I know from years of working as a shop assistant back in my student days that it would take a lot longer for a customer complaint to make it that far up the food chain but as we speak, my lost delivery gripe is probably being pored over in this week's social media report.

Since when did social media become more important than selling clothes?

Puppy profiles - the new trend in social media

Ah, men and puppies... nobody can resist that combo right? Well, not so much the case when the man we're talking about is Mark Zuckerberg and the puppy in question is a Puli with the ironic moniker Beast, who comes with a Facebook profile.

It's sad to think that an innocent little animal is part of a cynical PR strategy. Will this be the start of a trend for puppy profiles on Twitter? Will people check their pets into the park? Will dogs tag pictures of their pals from down the doggie park? I hope not... dogs can't type, so that'll never work! Duh....

Inappropriate times to use Facebook Part 2

Calling your child Facebook is wrong. Even when it's to mark the role the social media giant played in overthrowing your government. Still wrong. How long before little Facebook is asking a judge to change her name by deed poll?

Will 3D mobile change how we use social media?

One of the big trends at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week was 3D mobile. I admit it was the trend I was most intrested in as I was at the event with Movidius, a 3D multimedia coprocessor company.

LG were the talk of the show with their Optimus 3D demos also of interest was the fact that YouTube made a joint announcement with LG about the launch of YouTube 3D, due to be launched alongside the mobile handset to ensure there's a catalogue of 3D content available for users once the handset hits the market. Both companies had the foresight to see that for 3D capture and playback to take off, users need to have an outlet to share 3D user generated content.

There was also a lot of talk around 3D being an incentive for users to share their 3D video and images with their friends through social media. This is not a new message for the mobile industry. Mobile networks are of course keen to push social media and the sharing of UGC as it drives billable traffic - 3D even more so.

Looking at the end user - will 3D mobile change how we use social media? The answer is not until social media can support 3D content generated on 3D enabled mobile devices. 3D content could be a creative new platform for UGC so it sounds like YouTube is on the right track aligning with LG and kickstarting this new wave of purpose filmed 3D content.

Must see at MWC - social media for mobiles

I'm off to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week with work. This is the Big Daddy of mobile events and a great barometer of what's happening in the mobile industry. While I'm there providing PR support for Movidius, the company driving cool new 3D multimedia features in mobile devices, I'll also be keeping an eye out for interesting developments related to mobile and social media.

 

I've never been a heavy Facebook user but having a smartphone has really changed that in recent months. Being able to upload photos and links to Facebook on the go makes it a much more convenient and real time tool and I doubt I'd be using Twitter so much if I couldn't use it any time, anywhere. Who wants to log in from a desktop once or twice a day and catch up on hundreds (or thousands) of tweets?

 

 

 

At Mobile World Congress, I'll be keeping an eye out for any announcements about social media apps for portable devices. A whole list of social media companies are on the list of attendees and the press list is padded out with both traditional media and Twitter savvy bloggers. I'm also hoping to hear more about improvements to positioning technologies and improved multimedia features which I believe will have a huge impact on the effectiveness of Facebook Places, Facebook deals and other location based social media apps such as FourSquare, Gowalla et al.

 

Everyone tells me MWC is a great show so I'm very excited to go along and see it for myself. Oh, and Barcelona's not bad either... Bring on La Fira!

3 reasons why location based marketing apps fail to live up to the hype

Location based marketing apps are consistently hyped as 'the next big thing' but there are three main reasons why they have so far failed to live up to the hype.

1) 30% of the time my phone 'cannot find current location'
Trying to get around in London involves dipping in and out of mobile coverage and more often than not, the time I really need to know where I'm going is the time my HTC refuses to cooperate so I don't see this proving very effective for regular check-ins.

2) There's not enough incentive for me to share my personal information

I don't have to tell you where I'm going or who I'm with. My personal data comes at a premium and I'm not prepared to share it with everyone who can access my online network just so I can be called 'mayor'.

3) Location based marketing is still the poor cousin of social networking apps

FourSquare issued a lovley infographic this week proudly claiming 3400% growth in 2010 - http://foursquare.com/2010infographic. But look at the small print. That's about 6 million users worldwide so I think I'll hang on just a bit longer until I get a personal recommendation from a social media savvy friend before I believe the hype.

Inappropriate times to use Facebook part 1

Flying is not what it used to be between delays, baggage restrictions and security checks. The one thing I do enjoy about flying is switching off my phone and staring out of the window to engage in the good old fashioned passtimes of day dreaming and cloud gazing.

That's why I was horrified to read this story on Mashable - http://on.mash.to/fFhjY0.

That's right. Facebook on planes, for people who can't switch off, even at 10,000 feet. There's a time and a place for Facebook and on a plane is most definitely not it. For now, it's just a free trial in the US so lets hope that once passengers have to pay for the service they'll put it down to another airport rip off and that'll be the end of that!

Carving up the social media budget - Pie Analogy

One of the challenges faced by everyone involved in marketing, branding and PR is measurement. Usually, companies have a number of activities ongoing at the same time - a comprehensive advertising schedule, marketing campaign, PR and social media campaigns. Each department is often fighting for a bigger slice of the budget so how do they prove their worth?

Often, qualitative research before and after a campaign is the only way to know if your particular communication tool of choice is pulling its weight. That's why we're all slaves to website traffic, click throughs and referrals these days.

I set up my blog and twitter around the same time (with my addiction to Quora following soon after) and it's really been a revalation how these things feed into each other. The stats and analysis you get on even the most basic of social media tools is fantastic - where are your visitors clicking through from, which are your most popular posts and what topics get the most traction with visitors.

I'm a little bit too new at this to go showing my hand but I'm very happy to see people DO click through on my twitter links and that I was right - Quora is driving traffic to my blog. One amateur blogger does not a complete research report make but I'll be watching my stats counter with an eagle eye from now on.

Look before you tweet

The ubiquitous nature of social media has an obvious effect on where we go to for our news updates. With increasingly powerful smartphones, anyone can be an amateur news reporter and deliver eye witness reports, photos, videos and real time updates to their online network.

Mainstream media has to keep up with our changing expectations for how news is delivered, often with mixed results. Many journalists find interesting, quirky stories through social media trends. Take for example the story of the iPhone bug where the alarms were not adjusted when clocks changed to mark the end of British Summer Time.

Less impressive is the media's growing tendency to treat Twitter streams as a credible news source, quoting twitter users for 'reaction' and calling it quality journalism. There is a world difference between quoting a credible news source and using information from a source who hides behind an anonymous online avatar. Sooner or later, these lazy shortcuts will come back to bite you.

Don't believe me? Look at how ASOS sparked a twitter frenzy when they declared a 'street style shooting' on Oxford Street where they were filming their new ad. Before long, the story became 'shooting on Oxford Street'. A sensible Sky News reporter eventually cleared up the matter by calling the Police to clarify the situation, but not before several national news sources picked up on the story.

Think before you retweet or you could end up being a lazy hack or reckless retweeter's source, whether you want to be or not.

Friends close, Enemies on your Twitter feed

The best thing about social media is that there's so much of it out there - the good, the bad and the just plain cringeworthy.

Seen a Facebook page where every post gets a chorus of comments? Look at what works and add it to your own social media strategy. Or how about that Twitter campaign that's getting traction for all the wrong reasons? Watch and learn people...

It's all about keeping up with the Joneses these days. The good news is you don't have to spy over the garden fence to catch a glimpse. It's all there, plain as day on the company blog, in Facebook status updates, Twitter streams and on LinkedIn.

Go ahead, it's not spying. They WANT you to look!

Keeping LinkedIn current

For me at least, my Facebook profile is for personal use while I tend to use the rest of my social networks for work. Twitter is for keeping up with professional contacts and the latest news and I'm getting a lot out of Quora's discussions and recommendations.

So, what about LinkedIn, the business-oriented social networking site? I set up my profile years ago with the most basic of details and ignored the updates regularly appearing in my email inbox. I hadn't even bothered to update my career progression or a move to London and a new job, let alone get involved in new group discussions.

So, I've applied some of the recommendations I found online - filling out all my promotions and job changes, updating my interests and preferences, joining groups and discussions and accepting some long overdue requests and recommendations from LinkedIn. The result? I've already added a number of new contacts to my network and have already seen significantly more traffic on my page. I've learned my lesson, LinkedIn all the way.

Automated feeds - what's next? Twitbook?

There are so many applications now available to feed your RSS stream into twitter or to automatically link your blog to your Facebook page. No point in doing the same job twice I agree but it does irk me when a company I follow on twitter doesn't bother to take the time to think before they post.

Look at a company's Facebook page - are they short, sharp company focused posts? Or are they open ended questions looking for fans and friends to engage and comment? If it's the former, they probably use an automatic feed but if it's the latter, they most likely took the time to engage with their social media audience.

Facebook pages where all the postings are less than Twitter's 140 character limit are a dead giveaway. How else can you tell? Zero comments, likes or page suggestions usually.

Similarly, look at news services that automatically post their headlines to Twitter. The headline often trails off mid sentence, or worse, mid word. Companies who do this might think they come across as extremely media savvy, but all it says to me is that engaging with their key publics through social media is low on their list of priorities.

Imitation: Flattery or Fakery?

Does the old adage about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery apply in the social media sphere?

On one hand, we measure the success of social media campaigns in retweets and others posting links to our content. On the other side of the argument, look back to the fierce row that errupted on twiter when a group comedians accused TV presenter Keith Chegwin of stealing jokes and passing them off as his own to see that plagiarism and ownership are still issues in social media.

Wheteher or not  imitation can be called a 'sincere' form of flattery, you know you're something of a big deal when someone has gone to the bother of parodying your creation. Quora parody Cwera was one of the hot topic doing the rounds on twitter last week. Tom Scott got there first, poking fun at the impending tsunami of spam that Quora is likely to become as it grows while most of us were still scratching our heads trying to work out how exactly to make the most of our brand new Quora profiles.

So yes, imitation is flattering when it comes to social media. As long as you remember to credit your sources with a hashtag reference.

Much ado about Quora

With the New Year comes a whole new wave of exciting possibilities for social media in 2011. We've had the first marriage proposal on deal-of-the-day website Groupon, Facebook is overtaking Google as the most visited web page and with newcomers such as Instagr.am, FourSquare and WhatsApp there's a steady stream of engaging ways to interact with our online network.

One of the most interesting topics trending on Twitter right now is Quora, the new questions and answers service on the block. The site is estimated to have half a million registered users and is getting a huge amount of media buzz thanks to $11 million in Series A funding, great SEO capabilities, some heavy-hitting early adopters and glowing recommendations from some major players in the social media industry.

What appeals to me about Quora is that users have to give their full name so there's no hiding behind an online moniker. The site is easy to navigate and has a 'follow' option similar to Facebook making it easy to customize and highly personal. Quality is key to the Quora experience and with a straighforward ranking system the most popular answers to most viewed questions are clear.

With half a million registered users already signed up, the challenge for Quora is maintaining this quality as it expands. Right now there are none of the spam type responses you see with Yahoo Answers which, coincidentally, is still the most popular Q&A website around by a long shot. Now, just for kicks, I'm off ask Quora just what it has to say about that.

Too lazy for location aware apps

I still have my doubts about location aware apps such as FourSquare and Facebook Places. I don't feel the need to tell my online network of friends where I am - the important ones who want to hear where I've been are usually with me! Perhaps I'm a bit old fashioned but I still think it's rude to constantly have a mobile phone out when I'm with other people and becoming 'mayor' of a favourite bar, coffee shop, restaurant or shop is not quite incentive enough.

I was also interested to read Alan Wolk's recent post on The Toad Stool - http://bit.ly/eUN4js - querying if location based services such as FourSquare check need to be real time. While today's smartphones don't have the battery power to have always on GPS to track movement to allow 'check in' at a later stage of the day, I think there must be a way to use these location based apps to better advantage for businesses and personal users.

I see the benefit of localised applications for recommendations and special offers from a trusted network of users who gain credibility through recommendations and suggestions but telling everyone where I am every minute of every day is just plain over sharing.

I'm a late adopter to all social media trends - Hotmail IM, Bebo, Facebook, Gmail chat and Twitter so far. Figures put the number of users between 5 and 8% of adults online but after much hype in 2010, this is expected to jump significantly in 2011. Until the squirrel living out my back garden learns how to use a smartphone and gets on to FourSquare to become Mayor of my London flat, I'm still queen of my castle and that's enough for me.