My favourite thing about Social Media has to be the ability to connect, and share ideas with like-minded people from all over the world, and I’ve met quite  few people IRL over the years who I really admire, and enjoy spending time with.

My new favourite blogger is the Comms Corner’s Adam Vincenzini, the rising star of Digital PR, and a very likeable person on a personal level too!

Earlier this year, Adam decided to give up reading newspapers for a whole year and purely rely on digital sources instead. Here’s his take on digital content and our thirst for ‘news’

By Adam Vincenzini, The Comms Corner, on location in Australia.

It’s been interesting watching the ‘digi-sphere’ from a distance while in holiday mode in the last few days, especially with a huge time difference attached.

Without client deadlines et al, I’ve been able to spend a little extra time dipping into conversations I wouldn’t normally and read articles (purely online, of course) in more depth.

One theme has cropped up that potentially presents some huge opportunities and some equally huge challenges: consumer and media boredom.

This boredom stems from a ‘greed’, not a ‘need’ for continuous ‘news’ (now, I am only using ‘news’ as a term here as it’s the most easily identifiable way of describing what we crave, but honestly, only about 5% of what pops up on my screen each day is actual ‘news’) .

I’ll quickly highlight a couple of examples.

The ongoing rise and fall, and rise and fall, and rise and fall of Social Media

It was The Drum’s Gordon McIntyre-Kemp’s turn today to tell us that Social Media is dead and that certain tools like Twitter were completely ‘dispensible’.

Now, I’m not one to predict the future (that’s best left to Doc Brown ad Marty McFly), but I’d happily bet my entire Michael Jordan Basketball shoe collection that The Drum features a report in a few weeks time telling us how Social Media is growing at a record rate.

I blame us, both as consumers and communicators for this. Why? The Drum wouldn’t feature such content unless it’s readers wanted it…and then retweeted it…of course.

#JournChat talks about delivering news in real time

The lovely bunch of PR folk in America, led by Sarah Evans, regularly host an interactive discussion that focuses on burning media issues – it’s quite fun, and I think just as valuable.

One of the topics this week was meeting the consumers need for news around the clock and how that presented opportunities for traditional media, Bloggers, PRs etc

It’s true, a story can be played out over a few days now if it has enough sub-plots, but it comes back to my earlier point, are we actually reporting on ‘news’?

This has been clearly demonstrated in the last month in relation to the launches of the Google Nexus One and the Apple iPad.

I’m still recovering from the amount of chatter and deliberation that surrounded ‘what would be announced’ on the 27^th of January this year.

We, yes we, were giving legs to a story about WHEN something might be launched?!?!

Madness.

OK, get to the point…

The moral of this post (!) is that people who create quality content are fast becoming the most sought after professionals on the planet.

And, for brands who want to capitalise on this insatiable thirst, very measured choices must be made when appointing resources to help deliver this content.

While the platforms and tools are fun to play with, they are indeed ‘dispensible’ if the content they deliver doesn’t adequately satisfy the masses.

AV

I’ve been busy in the last couple of weeks , hence the lack of blogging but here’s a quick one for the road – the credit goes to @jetube for this

According to Nico, girls have only use four different types of Facebook profile pics and coming to think of it, his analysis is pretty accurate!

1) The single girl… will have a picture of herself dancing, on holiday, with a girlfriend/best mate or their pet

2) The girlfriend… will upload loved up couple pic…

3) … a few years down the line, this will be replaced by wedding photos, awww

4) Add another couple of years, and the family profile pic will follow!

I find psychology truly fascinating and by doing a little online digging, I found the results a Facebook profiles study carried out by social psychologist Dr Asi Sharabi on behalf of Cosmopolitan.

POUTING: Presenting such a provocative, sensual symbol indicates someone who wishes to be acknowledged in a sexual way – seeking intimacy or a partner. It could also indicate being a very tactile person

WITH AN ANIMAL: A person who displays themselves as capable of caring and nurturing, indicating need of an outlet for these tendencies and a broody nature.

DANCING: To display yourself on display, so to speak, is the ultimate invitation to be watched. Those who show themselves dancing are likely to be strongly extrovert. Additionally, in Western Culture, dancing has strong connotations toward leisure and freedom, denoting a hedonistic, pleasure-seeking streak.

WITH A BOYFRIEND: A popular picture type with serial monogamists, and signifies searching for a deeper or more committed relationship.

WITH A GUY (NOT BOYFRIEND): As well as a simple flirtatious contact, a picture with a potentially ambiguous meaning shows a love of creating stories, and playing games with the social fabric. In short, one who thrives on gossip.

DOING AN ACTIVITY: This is someone who identifies with their abilities and experiences rather than emotions or relationships. It may also indicate an unwillingness to commit or settle down.

ON HOLIDAY: Those who identify themselves with a carefree holiday may have a tendency to over-stress in their everyday lives. This could also indicate escapist fantasies or a dreamer disposition.

LOOKING AWAY FROM CAMERA: An unwillingness to be caught and posed in the conventional way is indicative of someone headstrong and confident in their approach to life.

NIGHT OUT/FANCY DRESS: This image represents the social, extroverted aspects of a personality; denoting that they value confidence and attention highly.

Have you identified any stereotypical pics gentlemen use on Facebook?

I’ve fallen out of love with Flickr…

I have been a Flickr Pro user for a number of years, but recently decided not to renew my Pro account. Flickr was the place where I kept my travel shots, but also indulged in a little macro photography now and again.

The Flickr community is awesome and I’ve discovered a number of truly amazing photographers over the years… I am a firm believer that the photo-sharing site can be a very powerful conversational tool, and should be included, whenever possible, in your overall social media strategy.

Flickr has however failed to keep up with other social networking sites in terms of innovation, and I’d really like to see them work on their integration with other Social Media sites. Here’s what I’d like to see:

• Flickr users are increasingly tweaking their profiles to update their status and it would make sense to incorporate a status bar
• Better integration with Twitter: I’d love to have Twitter widget on my profile
• A descent Facebook Flickr pictures tab/widget (most of the ones I’ve tried to install on my Facebook profile are mediocre), and an embeddable Facebook Fan Page would be good too
• Embeddable slideshows/photofolios on LinkedIn
• Foursquare integration – Adam mentioned that he’s like to be able to add pictures to his Foursquare check-ins. I’d like to be able to create maps of places I have been to. Foursquare and Flickr could be a match made in heaven

I have decided to keep a free Flickr profile where I’ll be uploading photos on the go from my phone for now. Photo-manipulation  FTW!

It’s been a little quiet on here over the past week or so… I am not entirely sure whether it’s writer’s block, lack of time (perhaps inspiration), or maybe all of the above. I can’t even be asked to Tweet!

I’ll be back for sure when I have something good to share… And oh, tips to beat writer’s block greatly appreciated!

2010 is already proving to be an interesting year in terms of Social Media; I clicked for the first time on a Facebook ad the other day, and I am now responding  to a mass mail out from T-Mobile’s YouTube channel, which I subscribe to.

It’s exactly a year since Londoners danced at Liverpool Street station for T-Mobile. To celebrate this anniversary, T-Mobile have a special 3-minute commercial going on TV tonight on Channel 4 at 9.30pm, during Celebrity Big Brother.

The commercial  features 1107 people from around the UK who joined Josh’s Band and recorded a song together.The song can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and Play.

T-Mobile making an interesting use of the social media space, as Josh’s Band is both on  Myspace (a really awesome Myspace page too!),  Twitter and a (personal?) Facebook Group to help Josh’s Band hit the Top 40.

This is an excellent example of digital outreach with minimum effort and maximu impact.

I am very impressed indeed!

I was one of the lucky few Foursquare users who  recently received an invite to download their Beta Blackberry app. The Foursquare mobile site seriously sucks, and the app makes it easy and fun to ‘check in’, find out where my friends are but also get recommendations from fellow Foursquare users.

The really clever thing about Foursquare is that it reaches a segment of Internet users (such as myself) who wouldn’t traditionally leave reviews on recommendations websites such as TripAdvisor or Qype. I also really like the idea that restaurants, cafes and even brands can send real-time discounts and offers  to ‘locals’.

As I logged onto the Fourquare website yesterday, I noticed that they are appealing to the community to create new city badges. New York already has a ‘Far Far away badge – welcome to the world above 59th Street’, and I think it would be quite fun to have North, South, East and West Londoner badges.

Saying that, I don’t see much value in Foursquare badges in their current shape and form, so I started thinking about how Foursquare could add value to its community of users.

I am not sure what the deal with Foursquare’s API is, but it has the potential to spawn a multitude of cool applications very much like Twitter. Now imagine a Foursquare/Google Maps mashup where you could map out the venues you’ve been to on holiday, and generate a guide of places worth checking out. Based on this concept, you could create ‘city experts’ badges, ‘certified foodie’ badges or ‘bar hopper’ badges thus establishing Foursquare users as experts in a certain field, whilst benefiting from their recommendations. How cool would that be?

Do you use Foursquare to find out where your friends are or perhaps to discover new places? Do you see any value in Foursquare badges in their current format?

As always, thanks for reading!

Here are a few questions I’d like you to answer…

• Have you ever ‘liked’ a Facebook advert?
• Have you ever clicked on a Facebook advert?
• Have you ever blogged about a Facebook advert?

If you’ve answered ‘no’ to these questions then we’re not dissimilar. Except, today I am blogging about a Facebook advert for the first time since this blog was created.

Facebook advertising effectiveness is arguable, but i did however manage to find a few Facebook advertising stats on Dan Calladine’s blog.

Blake Chandlee of Facebook EMEA Commercial Director points out  that:

• CPMs [cost per thousand impressions] on Facebook’s home page are three or four times those of Yahoo’s
• On click-through, the engagement levels we’re getting are 10-15 times that. Not 10% more, 10-15 times Yahoo’s click-through rates
• 80% of Facebook’s Ad Space Units are driven through a self-service auction model; they sell 50bn of them a month in the UK

50bn ads sold each month in the UK!! Imagine how many ads you see when within a month just on Facebook. How many of these ads do you act upon? Hardly or never, as far as I am concerned.

Until yesterday when I saw this ad for Meryl Streep’s latest movie, It’s Complicated.

I thought the copy was spot on for  Facebook (pretty funny if you ask me) and the fan page is very well managed with polls and a few extras such as behind the scene interviews.

This ad has made me want to see that movie and is a great example of successful Facebook advertising. They also managed to bag an extra 1000 fans since I screen-grabbed the advert yesterday… not bad.

I recently spotted an interesting campaign for French lingerie brand Aubade, which I thought would make a lovely case study on how to engage with bloggers.

To support the launch of their new (and really cool too!) French Art of Loving website, Aubade teased a few bloggers to death (quite literally!) and invited them to a saucy event in Central Paris.

The agency behind this campaign firstly tipped off the bloggers with this saucy video. The bloggers who wrote about the video where then Facebook befriended by the person who originally posted the video on YouTube and invited them to a ‘let’s see if the sexy lady strips off again tonight’ Tweet up in Central Paris.

This is what happened on the night:

Key Learnings:

• Be clever, different or even crazy when engaging with bloggers – we’re hard to please for sure. Use Twitter to catch our attention, leave comments on our blogs/Flickr accounts – you name it!
• Is your content blog-worthy: we mostly like cool campaigns… fact
• Get your bloggers offline (whenever possible): we’re a social bunch. Yes, really!
• We like it when brands invite us into their world – that’s what Social Media is about, right? Transparency and openness are key

Here’s my selection of tried and tested Twitter tools for December 2009; in no particular order:

1) Listorious - a fantastic site to discover Twitter list and a great tool to identify other Twitters of interest.

2) Brizzly is an aesthetically pleasing web-based Twitter client, which lets you manage multiple Twitter accounts / Facebook profiles, whilst also offering  a number of nifty ‘extras’ such as being able to view full URL (as opposed to bit.ly tiny URL links) and the definition of trending topics. I personally love the threaded DM feature.

3) Must Exist – a cool little site that lets you create a personal lists-based tag cloud

4) True Twit – a site that validates your followers for a spam-free Twitter experience!

5) Twitter stats – in their own words, a  service which help you to see Twitter stats based on your chosen keywords!

6) The Twitter Times – just like the Times newspaper but for Twitter

That’s all for 2009 folks! Have a fantastic time tonight and see you all in 2010!

Thanks to everyone who re-tweeted my best social media campaigns of 2009 yesterday. Hope you guys are ready for some more!

Ongoing – Meet Zack, the teenager who woke up one day with girl parts…

A really weird social media campaign for Tampax (yes!!) by Leo Burnett in the USA. Even tampons can be marketed through social media!

Zack is an average teenager who wakes up one day with ‘girl parts’. Uncertain as to what to do, he decides to share his experiences via his blog and Twitter feed.

It’s a little weird at first, but his adventures are disgustingly addictive!

July 2009: Harry Potter Tweet – enchant your followers

As a huge Harry Potter fan, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter Tweet campaign that generated a fair bit of buzz around the launch of the wizard’s latest adventures.

All you had to do was log onto the site using your Twitter login to gain access to potion preparation and the list of spells, including love spells, curses, invincibility spells and other magical elements of the Harry Potter universe before casting a spell onto one of your followers!

August 2009: Hula Hoops Golden Hoops awards

You might have seen this funky Hula Hoops TV ad by Publicis earlier this year challenging consumers to create Hula Hoops hand puppets and upload them onto their micro-site. Correct me if I am wrong, but we’re not exactly a nation of YouTubers (unlike our American counterparts), however some of the videos created for this campaign were indeed pretty amazing.

September 2009: Jack Johnson – get a free music track against a Tweet

US musician Jack Johnson, launched  an innovative Twitter campaign, which rewards users who tweet a message promoting his new album with free music. By going on a dedicated website, users could download a free track from his latest ‘En concert’ album, and help spread the word by Tweeting about the album. Simple and clever!

November 2009 – The Marmarati Secret Society

Crowdsourcing has been the buzzword of 2009. Marmite, enlisted the help of 40 bloggers to create an extra-strong variant of the brand and the product will be launched exclusively through social media channels such as Facebook and blogs next year. Marmite ‘lovers’ can try the new variant before it hit shelves next year by proving their love for the brand.

December 2009 – using social media to generate sales: spotlight on iTunes and Coach

Whilst social media has been primarily used to raise awareness of products and services, some innovative brands are now selling products via their Facebook Fan Pages.

Apple’s iTunes has recently rolled out a new feature on its Facebook fan page that allows US users to create custom iTunes gift cards and send them directly to friends through the social networking site or via email.

Luxury brand Coach (managed by the lovely Julia Roy, whom I had the opportunity to meet during my recent New York trip) have also recently rolled out a Coach Facebook gift finder – pretty cool, huh?