The use of social media continues to grow at a rapid pace, with platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and LinkedIn hungrily consuming the attention of the masses and connecting them with almost everything they buy, watch and read – online and off.

State of the Media: Social Media Report Q3
(A Nielsen report which analysed the level of influence social media has on consumer behaviour)

With all the social networking channels available, today’s consumer voice can be heard loud and clear everywhere. It’s influencing the consumer’s entire buying process. If brands don’t pay attention, not only will they risk losing customers, but could be easily upstaged by their once small and powerless competitors. Social sites, such as Twitter, provide outlets that empower customers to raise their voice about their experiences and opinions. The anonymity and safety of this outlet allows a confident expression of true feelings about brand interactions and product reviews. A couple of statistics I came across re-iterated my own experience:

• about two-thirds of customers use information found through social media to influence their buying decisions
• 67 per cent of customers are likely to pass this information on to others
• over 60 per cent trust information they find through social media more than traditional advertisements

I was facing a significant purchase decision – one that could potentially save my life, and not the kind you want to take lightly or get wrong. It’s perhaps a bit dramatic, but any biker would agree that choosing the right body armour can be a tough decision. The market is saturated with brands, each claiming to have been awarded all manner of safety awards and recommendations, each using a different ‘number one’ type of safety material. I needed to buy a back protector – this sounds easy enough, but a quick Google search reveals the countless brands, styles and prices ranging anything from £20 to well over £200.

So where do you start? Like many others, I hold the reviews and opinions of friends and like-minded contacts in far higher regard than any sales person or kind of advertisement. I don’t even trust online reviews as they are too easy to manipulate. So, I headed straight to my social networks to find out what the online biker community had to say.

I don’t personally know many of those who responded to my initial tweet, but I know they are all genuine, experienced bikers who were offering opinions of the products they use themselves. With no concern of ulterior motives in their words, I felt confident to take their advice on board. My tweets even attracted the attention of some social network savvy brands that got in touch immediately to offer recommendations and discount codes – it was good to see them on the ball.

The best response came from @thinkhugger (the face of Norfolk’s biker road safety initiative) who not only offered very helpful, totally unbiased advice, but also introduced me to a latest innovation in body armour that I’d never even heard of – a great example of the power of social networking. The ever-trusted word of mouth referral now has a much wider reach in a fraction of the time, compared to the pre-social network era.

With all the recommendations received and responses swaying in one very specific brand direction, I headed down to a local bike shop to get the best fitting of the determined manufacturer – another piece of key advice from my biker tweeps. It’s fair to say that when I come to make my next motorbike related purchase decision, or any big purchase for that matter, I know exactly where to go for a useful input.

So… who wants to help me with #househunting ? If social media has influenced any of your purchases recently, or if this is something you specifically try to embrace or avoid, let me know – @Heather64.

Pepsi are yet to announce which artists will be involved in the concerts that will begin in the summer, but expect Nicki Minaj to feature, given that the deal also includes a TV ad with the Superbass singer.

This looks to be the next stage in the famed Cola Wars, following on the back of rival ­Coca-Cola announcing a deal with online music provider Spotify, which will see the music player integrated into Coca-Cola’s Facebook page that also happens to have a fanbase of 41 million users. A Facebook Spotify app is also being developed.

I expect that the powers that be at Pepsi have seen the power of the hashtag with the countless trending topics from the Beliebers, One Directioners and the like. This campaign will provide Pepsi with the opportunity to have their hashtags, videos and other ad content to go viral.

Although Pepsi are yet to reveal the full details of the campaign, they have a great opportunity to really engage with their fanbase here. No doubt they already have their artists already lined up, but will Pepsi allow their fans to vote for who they want to see in concert? If the artists buy into this, they could follow the example of NFL star Cam Newton, who posted videos online for why he should be voted onto the cover of the 2012 version of Madden, the famed American football video game franchise.

How about asking people to demonstrate how they are “living for now”, as the slogan goes? With the tie in to Twitter, this could use the 140 characters allowed in a tweet, or ask people to post a video on YouTube; they could even use the social network of the moment Pinterest to show what “living for now” means to them.

If you were Pepsi, how would you look to engage with your fans with campaign? Who would you want to vote to see in concert?

It would be great to hear what you would do, either here or on Twitter @andrewlowdon.

We’re all bombarded with messages and advertising, and it’s hard to get your message to stick. It’s well documented that marketers need to use even more sophisticated ways of reaching their target audience. Some commentators explain that tomorrow’s successful marketers are going to be data analysts, finding patterns in terabytes of data to make sure that they’re targeting the right audience with the right messages at the right time.

The whole point of the online world is that people find communities of people who are interested in the same things as them (folding picture of Ross Kemp or zombie crochet). People follow other people who they want to hear from, people that they trust to be entertaining, honest and interesting. So when your favourite celebrity seems to change their personality, and then you find out that someone has paid them to do it, you could be forgiven for feeling lied to. And that’s the trap that social advertisers need to avoid. It’s far too easy to make the same mistakes as marketers have traditionally made in the offline world – bombarding people with irrelevant, annoying, interrupting noise.

The background to all of this is a PR stunt in which celebrities including Ian Botham, Amir Khan, Rio Ferdinand, Cher Lloyd and Katie Price were paid to tweet on unfamiliar issues (Ferdinand on knitting and Price on global politics) before eating a Snickers and returning to ‘normal’. The campaign got a reaction from people for many reasons: including commentators saying that the tweets suggested that eating Snickers turns you into an idiot. But the fierce heat might be yet to come, with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) investigating undeclared celebrity endorsements and Office of Fair Trading (OFT) expressing concern over the matter. Consumer protection regulations launched in 2008 mean that the OFT can seek a court order, potentially leading to a criminal prosecution and an unlimited fine if celebrities aren’t clear to their audience when they are being  paid to promote products in the form of advertising. It might be the first Twitter campaign to be banned by the ASA who are launching an investigation that could set a new benchmark in social advertising.

It’s no surprise that many of these celebrities’ followers took exception to being advertised to on Twitter. As the number of social advertising channels is growing, with G+ bringing social recommendations into search results pages and Facebook launching sponsored stories, marketers need to remind themselves of the mistakes that have been made in offline advertising before launching themselves into people’s social worlds.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel like you are being bombarded by adverts on Twitter? @tominleeds

Previously Twitter has allowed selected brands to take advantage of Twitter’s commercial opportunities. However now all brands can take advantage of these opportunities by using the self-service tool. They will be able to run campaigns targeted to keywords and interests.

Promoted Tweets

Promoted Tweets are used to strengthen an advertiser’s message whilst targeting the right people, in the right place at the right time. Targeting methods include:

• Promoted Tweets in search: reach users when they are searching for their interests. For example when I search for ‘Samsung’ I am presented with:

• Promoted Tweets in timelines: these appear near the top of a user’s timeline when they log in; they are used to target an advertiser’s followers or like their followers, for example:

• Geographic Targeting: target an advertiser’s message to a particular geography.  Currently these can be targeted at the country level or at the U.S regional level.

• Political Campaigns: promoted tweets can be used during the election season.

As Promoted Tweets are priced on a Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) basis you only pay when someone retweets, replies to, clicks or favourities your promoted tweet. The cost effectiveness of your campaign is increased by the free impressions on retweets extending the reach of your campaign. Promoted Tweets that engage users will appear more frequently.

Promoted Trends

In addition Promoted Trends can be used to capture a user’s attention by driving conversations and interest around an advertiser’s brand or product. Promoted Trends will appear in a prominent position at the top of a user’s timeline.

Promoted Accounts

Promoted accounts can be used to quickly build a strong base of followers and expand an advertiser’s presence. For example increasing the engagement of followers before a new product is released. Promoted Accounts are featured in the Who to Follow section; they appear on users pages that have been identified as having similar interests to an advertiser’s account.

Every Promoted Account comes with a Dashboard that enables advertisers to gain insight into their campaign’s performance. This enables them to track impressions, retweets, clicks, replies, and follows. It also enables them to see timelines of the activity and followers’ interests, geography, gender and engagement.

Will Twitter’s Self-Serve Ad Platform reach the scale of Google Adwords? Let me know your thoughts.

Top 5 Twitter Accounts to follow:

@GarrettFrench – a fountain of link building knowledge can be found via Garrett’s Twitter account. His wealth of knowledge on link building can be measured by his contributions on Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch, as well as his creation of Ontolo and the later mentioned Citation Labs toolset.

@debramastaler – Debra is a tweeter and re-tweeter of very useful link building information. Worth following if you want to hear from a veteran linkbuilder.

@wilreynolds – Wil doesn’t regularly tweet about link building, but when he does, it’s always great information. I started following him based on an excellent presentation at LinkLove. He apparently “LOVES building links”.

@stuntdubl – I’ve only just started following Todd Malicoat but he has made the list based on the fact that he is considered one of the top link building experts around.

@randfish – despite the fact he tweets about everything SEO and not just link building, every link builder needs to follow Rand. Many consider him to be one of the most influential people in SEO.

Top 5 Blogs to read:

Wiep.net – Wiep Knol is a link marketing consultant from the Netherlands and blogs about a wide range of link building techniques. The very best thing about his blog is the work he puts into creating “link building this month” – which is a list of the top link building posts of a particular month.

Ross Hudgens – You’ll find Ross actually features several times in this guide because he produces some great link building posts. I haven’t been following his blog for long but what I’ve seen so far has been very useful.

Ontolo – As a link building tools company, you’d expect them to produce some useful link building posts. They do produce some great guides. The only downside is a lot of their guides are focused around their own tools (as you’d expect).

The Link Spiel – Although the posts aren’t regular every month, Deborah Mastaler is a veteran in the link building world and writes some excellent posts about all areas of link building. The posts are a lot more personal and approachable than most major SEO websites. I particularly enjoyed Is an image worth a thousand words?

Seargh Engine Land – I wasn’t sure whether to include this in the list or not because to view all the posts you must be a premium member. However, the blog is regularly updated with useful information for both new starters and veterans.

Did I miss any that you’d like to add? Please leave me a comment below or on Twitter - @jakeyrainbow

As Twitter and social media in general are becoming more mainstream as marketing communication tools, we are seeing more and more of these social media faux pas. Below are some examples of poorly executed and managed tweets by brands.

1. Habitat

Furniture store Habitat created a ‘social media strategy’ which involved using trending topic hashtags at the start of their tweets. Habitat decided this would be a good way to make the brand more visible without considering the fact that their tweets were completely irrelevant to the topic. The final straw for Twitter users was using hashtags for the election in Iran and the political unrest around this topic.

2. Kenneth Cole

US fashion retailer Kenneth Cole took a similar line to Habitat earlier this year. During the Arab Spring uprising, Cole tweeted about their sale and linked it to the hashtag #Cairo, which was trending worldwide at the time.

One of the dangers with managing social media campaigns is allowing someone aligned with your brand to misrepresent the voice of the brand. However, in this case it looks as though the rogue tweet came from Mr Cole himself as indicated by the KC at the end of the tweet.

3. Chrysler

Another good example of giving a third party the authority to tweet on your behalf is American car company Chrysler. Earlier this year the Chrysler account tweeted “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f*****g drive.” The tweet was quickly deleted and the blame placed on a now ex-employee of Chrysler’s now former social media agency.

4. American Red Cross

The American Red Cross got involved in the action when their social media specialist managed to accidentally send out a tweet intended for her personal account, which was blamed on her inability to use Hootsuite.

However, unlike most brands who can put their head in the sand and hope the storm blows over, the American Red Cross made light of the tweet later tweeting that the rogue tweet had been deleted and ensured that ‘the Red Cross was sober’. A great example for brands in how to counteract an embarrassing situation with humility and humour.

5. Chase Bank

Technically not a Twitter fail, but when the Chase Bank website crashed, there was a failure to communicate the issue effectively to customers. It took Chase nearly two days to inform customers that the site was down, by which time customers had already been venting their frustrations on Twitter. Not only were customers frustrated at not being able to use the site, but were also concerned that the site had been hacked and their money was in danger. A simple tweet from a Chase Twitter account could have quickly alleviated these concerns and helped customers become aware of the issues at hand.

These are just a few examples of social media mishaps by big brands. Are there any that you think should be on the list? Drop me a message below or on Twitter @andrewlowdon if you know of any more.

How many times have we checked who’s tweeted us to find a spammy link with a poorly written, generic message?

“Hey, look at this cool link I found!”

 “Make $$$ with your blog”

Or even (and this is my personal favourite):

“Get 50% Discount on Viagra by clicking this link:”

As riveting as these messages may be (and however much I might want to replenish my Viagra supply at a whopping 50 per cent discount), it’s an unquestionably poor attempt at Twitter marketing.

(N.B – I did actually suggest to my colleague @PeterGould83 about coining the word ‘Marktwitting’ for this context. He told me it sounded like someone saying ‘marketing’ with a lisp…)

The golden rule for Twitter outreach is not to spam. It’s lazy and ineffective. We’re always far too tempted to just Ctrl+C our way through Twitter campaigns – it is easy to forget that the beauty of Twitter really is the art of conversation, and an art that shouldn’t be lost. Where else on the web can you join in conversations with millions of others by the correct use of a hash-tag?

It’s not just the tendency to copy and paste that will have you branded a ‘spammer’. If you’re telling people what they already know, or just plain stating the obvious, your tweet is likely to be ignored.

The main risks of succumbing to spam-bot tactics can probably be summarised in the following three points:

1. You negate any digital authority you’ve built within your niche

2. You’ll lose followers

3. It’s a waste of time (and time, as we know, is money!)

Corporate outreach through Twitter should be personalised, relevant and precisely targeted for maximum efficiency. The only thing that should ever be copied into a tweet is a link or an email address you want them to see.

Don’t be afraid to put a bit of yourself on your Twitter account – after all, it is a social network! Unless you have an ardent desire to tweet about your deepest darkest secrets, don’t have separate personal and professional accounts. Allow your digital profile to reflect you as a person. We relate better to individuals when we know that they’re not regurgitating corporate robots.

It’s also a good idea to develop your bio to reflect your personal and professional persona and use those 140 characters wisely. Remember, it’s the first thing people are going to look at when they check out your profile.

Now, with old-school email outreach, any spelling and grammar discrepancies are a real faux-pas.  Naturally, the rules can be slightly bent for Twitter outreach, as users are limited to only 140 characters per tweet.  Abbreviations are often necessary, but it is important make sure you stick to the common abbreviations and to not misspell them. Use full words whenever possible – the aim is to be clear and concise.

And finally, a message to Oxford University Press: if you feel compelled to include ‘marktwitting’ in the dictionary – tweet me! (Just make sure it’s not spam…)

What are your White Hat Rules for Twitter outreach? Tweet me @amybyard

The ‘Twitter fail’ list has become a big talking point over the last few years with major companies, political groups, celebrities and even just the average person posting tweets they wish they hadn’t.

Here are some of those embarrassing tweets over the years:

1. The Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for their irrational and prejudice protests and they don’t fail to disappoint with their Twitter account either. With the recent passing of ex Apple CEO Steve Jobs, they saw an opportunity to display how small-minded they really are.

In the past MPs had adhered to an unwritten agreement allowing them to use smartphones and tablet computers during proceedings but not laptops. Back in January a deputy Commons Speaker informed MPs they were not to use Twitter. In the run up to the vote that followed, some MPs claimed that those who used devices to monitor and send messages on the social networking site and carry out similar activities could bring proceedings in the chamber into disrepute. It was also stated that MPs should only be allowed to use electronic devises to “receive and send urgent messages”.

As it stands, the rules have now to been updated to state that devices can be used “provided that they are silent, and used in a way that does not impair decorum”. Having been present during a round of Prime Minister’s Questions, it is quite hard to imagine how Twitter may affect decorum any more than the general noisy debate that takes part on a day-to-day basis!

In addition, it is planned that MPs will be able to refer to tablet computers or smartphones instead of paper notes when making speeches, but not read from them. They will also be able to use laptops in committee meetings. Another possible advantage of the ruling is that MPs will choose to attend Parliament more regularly as they will be able to service other matters of business at the same time. This can only be seen as a positive move, though of course it will potentially come at the cost of some MPs splitting their attention.

Another argument against the use of Twitter was countered by Conservative Roger Gale who pointed out that the use of Twitter could leave MPs open to greater outside influence. He said: “If we are now to suggest that Members are going to be allowed to Twitter and receive comment in the course of these debates then it is absolutely inevitable that you will have people sitting in the public gallery sending messages saying ‘ask him this, tell her that, read this,’”. With this in mind, it’s worth remembering the cash-for-questions debacle of the 90s happened long before Twitter was invented and should an MP choose to dishonourably act on behalf of anyone other than constituents this hardly going to be played out on Twitter. Futhermore,  many MPs are already using social networking outside of the Commons to engage with their constituents, which can surely only be seen as a good thing – even if on the part of some it may be merely an attempt to be ‘down with the kids’.

With only two countries in Europe currently banning the use of Twitter during session, if parliament had chosen to enforce a ban, we could have rightly been seen as being behind the times. So, where do you stand? Will Twitter bring our political establishment into disrepute? - @fayBerg

How Twitter Gives Joey A Voice

Joey Barton is a misunderstood individual; he’s not your usual footballer. He’s actually quite an eloquent guy who discusses amongst other things – politics, philosophy and of course football, championing causes close to the heart of the common man.

As an avid Twitter user, Joey’s got into trouble once or twice for his misuse of Twitter, more notably leading to his exit from Newcastle United for his criticism of owner Mike Ashley. Usually this would lead to fans slating the player for disrespecting the club and the owner, and  for believing they were bigger than the club. But not in Joey’s case. Following the announcement by Newcastle in August that he was available on a free transfer, he went on Twitter to let his followers know that he wasn’t looking for a move but was being forced out by the Newcastle board and to convey the honour and pride he felt from playing for Newcastle. This allowed Joey to put his viewpoint across to the Newcastle fans where previously this wouldn’t have been possible as only the club’s view would have been heard.

As Twitter has become more popular, there have been numerous sports stars that have got into trouble for their tweeting – case and point former Liverpool midfielder Ryan Babel. Joey is a prime example of how sport stars should use Twitter; he puts across his views, confounds public opinion and engages with his followers to discuss the topics close to his heart.

Journo’s Using Twitter As An Information Source

In Joey’s case, Twitter can be used to put across a point of view which otherwise may not be heard. I’ve noticed another worrying trend with Twitter – the lazy journalist.

These are the journalists who source their information by following celebrities on Twitter and create a story based on a tweet, more often than not misinterpreting the tweet. These journalists can’t believe their luck that instead of going out into the field and chasing up any leads for potential stories, now all they have to do is sit at their desk and follow their Twitter feed as the celebrities talk to them.

In today’s climate, is it really massively newsworthy that Joey heard a burglar attempting to break into a neighbour’s house?

This isn’t an issue specific to Joey either. The Daily Mail seems to have an ongoing feature based on the tweets of the cast of The Only Way Is Essex.

Social Media Propaganda

Due to his fondness for tweeting about politics, Joey has recently had to fend off attempts by the English Defence League. Joey recently had a photo with a ‘fan’ who turned out to be the leader of the EDL, who then posted the photo on their site claiming he was a member. Through quick thinking, Joey went straight to his Twitter account to deny the allegations and state that he is not aware of the religious, political or personal beliefs or affiliations of any person who asks him for a photo in public.

Are you a follower of Joey Barton? Are you surprised by the nature of his tweets and like me do you have a new found respect for Joey for this? Let me know your thoughts on this either on here or over on Twitter – @andrewlowdon.

Why? Both Google and Bing have openly admitted that social links are part of their ranking algorithms and in order to shape a healthy, successful and future proof SEO campaign, social media has to be considered.

So how can you take advantage of this and quickly? Well, social buttons are present across many a blog and website. They provide many benefits in addition to aiding SEO including increased brand exposure, improved social engagement with your network of fans and followers, and more traffic to your website. All those benefits from one click of a button and the user doesn’t even leave the website!

For today, I’ll be focusing on how to add the Twitter ‘Tweet’ button to your website or blog.

1. Choose your button

Head over to https://dev.twitter.com/docs/tweet-button and choose the type of button you want. You have three choices:

1. A plain ‘Tweet’ button with no count figure
2. A horizontal Tweet with a count of how many people have tweeted your content
3. A vertical ‘box’ style Tweet button with a count of how many people have tweeted your content

In this step you can also choose the text and URL which appears in the update. If you do not set these, the text will default to the title and URL of the page that the button is placed on.

2. Recommend people to follow

You can recommend up to two accounts to follow, one of which we’d recommend to be your own. For the additional account, leave it blank or add in a brand partner or contributor.

3. Copy the code and paste it into the HTML

After those (extremely) simple steps, it’s up to you or your web dev team to copy and paste the button into the preferred position on your page. Job done!

(Optional Step) Customise your Tweet button

For the more technically advanced people out there, it is possible to further customise the Tweet button through certain API attributes. You can find out how to customise the Tweet button further (and even create your own Tweet button) by visiting https://dev.twitter.com/docs/tweet-button.

Over to you!

Have you personally added the Twitter button to your website or blog? How easy did you find it and do you have any tips for fellow readers as to what you found successful?

-@alwaysmikegomez

Isn’t that the sort of action that tyrannical despot governments take? Didn’t Egypt do that a few months ago to widespread uproar? Surely that wasn’t really an option for the UK government?

It would be too simplistic to suggest that shutting down social networks would see an end to trouble or violence, or that we’ve become a country that would be so quick to do something so extreme.

Thankfully, the tack that the government seems to be taking is that of education rather than censorship. Representatives of Facebook, Twitter and RIM (the makers of BlackBerry) are working with the Met and the government to look at how they can improve monitoring so that they can look at how they enforce the law online rather than spoiling the fun for the rest of us.

Social media monitoring is obviously already widely used by agencies such as ourselves, but whilst officers involved in counter-terrorism and child protection are already savvy about social networking and are accustomed to the application of the law to remove/take down messages from Twitter and Facebook, it’s not something their public order colleagues are as familiar with. It seems logical to get them up to speed and fluent in the application of law in such exceptional circumstances, so that Facebook and Twitter can remain uncensored in the main.

With friends who were trying to make their way home and avoiding the trouble on the streets, Twitter was invaluable to them by alerting them of where to steer clear of, as well as being able to see which public transport services were still running and how they could get themselves as far away from the trouble as possible.  It was also instrumental in the massive clean up that took place in the days after the riots and in the condemnation of the rioters.

-@Augustish

Over recent years, social media has expanded exponentially and is obviously a trend that is here to stay for the foreseeable future. There are more than 750 million active accounts on Facebook and 200 million tweets a day from Twitter! With current main stream social tools hitting astronomical user figures, it is unsurprising to see the affects these means of communication can have on the population of most countries; keeping up to date with current global affairs is effortless and an almost instantaneous action that allows the world to be more connected than ever before.

However, with the recent situations arising in the UK these services have come under attack. They have been blamed for the escalation and sheer size of the devastating riots around the southern areas of Britain. Many main stream newspapers have repeatedly accused Twitter and the Blackberry messaging service as being a focal area for the majority of rioters to quickly gather information, and also be encouraged to join in with the mayhem. The BBC quoted Tory MP Nick de Bois stating that they have been “on an organised day using the social media, phoning their friends, in a concerted effort to just move trouble up and capitalise on those awful events at the weekend.” Many have demanded that these services should be under a much tighter control and even suspended until after the rioting has subsided.

Although these social media services may have provided a useful resource for the rioters to contact one another on a vast scale, can they really be solely blamed for the volume of attacks? Quite simply, no. Riots of similar size and damage have occurred many times in the past throughout the world, notably way before the ideas for these social platforms even began to be conceived. A great example, which had a very similar trigger to this riot, was on 5 October 1985 when the Broadwater Riots occurred in Tottenham. A time when the idea of a personal computer or even a hand held device which could communicate with even a single person was an extreme rarity, and laughable at.

To further the defence of the social media tools, companies such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter have greatly aided the fight against the rioters. Citizens of the UK have set up multiple accounts or groups on Facebook and Twitter organising local areas into cleaning up after the devastation. This effort was met by a great response throughout the UK which would not have been possible without these platforms. Notably the largest of these groups using the Twitter hashtag #riotcleanup, naming themselves the “Broom Army,” successfully used Twitter to organise huge clean up operations in the affected areas. The British police force has also taken advantage of such services using Tumblr as a recognisable location to host images of suspected criminals. This idea has dramatically sped up the identification of these individuals and aided the police’s resistance to the ongoing riots.

Although these digital platforms are a powerful form of communication to a mass population, they are only tools. The users who control these tools to their advantage are ultimately to blame. That user’s morals will control how the service is used, whether that is in a responsible manner or not.

What are you views on the control social media appears to have. Do the advantages out weight the issues?

@JM_Sanderson

Particular emphasis has been placed on the BlackBerry messenger service for coordinating and powering the riots. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, BBM is a private, free social network, where all messages are automatically encrypted as they leave the senders phone. It was originally designed by BlackBerry to assist its roots as a secure business communication tool.

The Met police claim that the rioters used the BBM messaging service to target areas for looting and destruction, whist informing fellow riot members of police locations. Scotland Yard has declared that incriminating and “really inflammatory and inaccurate” messages on social networks would lead to arrests.

Patrick Spence, RIM’s managing director of global sales and regional marketing, confirmed on Twitter that they will be helping with the police’s investigation and “assist in any way we can.”

Although RIM is legally required by the police to hand over the details of users suspected of unlawful activity, they have also declared that due to the encrypting nature of the messaging service, they themselves cannot decode all of the messages spread by the rioters.

Now a number of politicians, members of the police force and media commentators are suggesting that Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry messenger have had a vital role in the organisation and velocity of the crimes committed. The Tottenham MP David Lammy claimed that the riots were “organised on Twitter.” However, there seems to be little evidence of this on Twitters public feeds.

Although social networks have been flooded with boasts of looting, acts of violence and notes of encouragement to create “anarchy,” many displaying pictures of looters posing with their stolen goods (including one guy’s picture posing with his proud loot of Tesco’s value basmati rice), there is little to suggest that these forms of media were the cause or primary motivation to the act of violence.

The nature of Twitter and social networks alike is to create trends, hype, noise and a sense of community. Therefore the very environment of these tweets and posts are likely to create a frenzy of activity on these sites, but how likely is it that these networks are to blame for the actuality of the crimes being committed?

It’s known that companies use these social forms to create followings, trends and interest in their brands and products, in the hope that these will convert into sales of their goods. However, it’s a long going debate as to how and if an exact measure of their efforts on social networks can convert into sales.

To suggest and blame social networks such as Twitter and Facebook for causing and orchestrating this kind of destruction can only suggest that people are so subject to messages on these networks, that no matter their original intentions, they would commit a crime they would never ordinarily consider. This is simply not the case.

In my opinion, Facebook and Twitter, along with other similar social networks, are no more than networks of people with shared interests. They are used to communicate these interests and without being in the loop or the following of such, would be unlikely to be subject to these messages in the first place.

It’s the man behind the technology that needs to be brought to justice, not the form of communication used to spread the word. Did riots before Twitter and BBM not happen? Of course they did. They just used a different method of reach. Social networking has not caused these riots to happen and although the spread of influence has been witnessed by a larger audience than may have previously occurred, it doesn’t mean that people not intent to commit these crimes would do so because of it.

However, miscommunication has occurred here. The original message on a tribute page dedicated to Mark Duggan, with no less than 10,000 followers on Saturday, was to encourage posts to show the destruction caused by the riot to show their retaliation to the police in the account of Mark Duggan’s death.

However, this has formed a case of Chinese Twitter users to send out messages like this:

“If you’re down for making money, we’re about to go hard in east London tonight, yes tonight!! I don’t care what ends you’re from, we’re personally inviting you to come and get it in. Police have taken the piss for too long and to be honest I don’t know why its taken so long for us make this happen. We need a minimum of 200 hungry people. We’re not broke, but who says no to free stuff. Doesn’t matter if the police arrive cos we’ll just chase dem out because as you’ve seen on the news, they are NOT ON DIS TING. Everyone meet at 7 at stratford park and let’s get rich.”

The Facebook dedication page reformed its original message of encouragement and on Monday, asked that rioters would stop burning and looting if they had any respect for the family of Mark Duggan.

The message has now changed, from retaliation of the police and their acts of defence against Mark Duggan, to a message that the police force cannot control crime.

However, it is the criminals and unlawful thugs of these crimes that need to be brought to justice. If the perpetrators are stupid enough to solicit and organise crimes through social networks, then this can only provide a more tangible form of evidence to bring them to justice.

Surely now is the time to spread the message on social networks that this behaviour will not be tolerated.

What are your thoughts? -@JodieMcDonne11

The athletes have been encouraged to start blogging and to use Twitter by Olympic officials, but there are guidelines which are definitely not worth breaching, as the athletes could face rejection from the Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines state that the competitors must write ‘first person and diary-type entries,’ and not act as reporters. They have also released a 2012 Social Media Etiquette, stating that postings must be ‘dignified and in good taste’ and ‘not contain vulgar or obscene words or images.’ Although there appears to be strict guidelines, the IOC are actively encouraging and supporting athletes to take part in social media and to post, blog and tweet their experiences.

While athletes will be able to upload photographs taken during events, there are a few other stipulations:

• Broadcast and audio will be restricted however in the Olympic grounds.
• The athletes have also been advised that they cannot use the official Olympics symbol.

I think it is ironic that the IOC is controlling what the athletes may display, yet are revoking their rights to release what information they may want to release Social media is successful for its interaction. If this social communication is manipulated and opinions are unnatural, social media loses its core appeal; it is about presenting individual identities and the fascination of others’ lives.

Through social media, the athletes will be able to give fans a first-hand account of what’s going on, as well as breaking news about events. This information will undoubtedly reach millions of people in a matter of seconds, making it easier for fans to receive and disseminate updates in real time. This ‘special promotion’ of the Olympics on the social platform will generate both interest and an increase in both activity and users; this is a winning collaboration for Twitter and the Olympics.

This will clearly be excellent exposure for the Olympics; however, negative exposure and publicity is a slight worry. Let’s hope they haven’t shot themselves in the foot and there is a positive outcome, and they better keep the athletes happy to avoid any negativity! I’m sure all Twitter users will be very pleased about this news….I know I am!

What are your thoughts on this? -@Charl_ps

I suppose this account is personal. I joined up with the internet in 1997 at the age of 12 and back then, the only way to truly assert your web presence was through a poorly-made website from providers such as Geocities, Lycos, Freewebs and Tripod. None of them really  gave you all the tools needed to make what you wanted, though it didn’t really matter; so long as you could slap up the occasional GIF, JPG and scrolling text, you were onto a winner. That was until you abandoned it after about a month.

As social media exploded with the growing popularity of broadband and MSN Messenger in the late 90s, the masses started to abandon more basic tools such as AOL Instant Messenger in order to have access to a growing raft of add-ons and updates that allowed for more assertive personal presences on instant chat. Profile pictures, customised backgrounds and terribly manipulative functionality from providers such as Mess.be allowed people to do all kinds of crazy things.

Around the same time, Myspace reared its once-beautiful head to create the first widely-accepted online community. As a basic shell that just required one visit to a horrible, malware-laden webspage to provide a “great” theme to accompany a usually-annoying self-picked song, the site granted a lot of freedom. Some people were conservative with redesigns; others went mental. Individuality was alive and well, but at what cost?

Quite a heavy one, if you ask News Corporation (who officially lost millions on it this year). While relatively predictable, Myspace became over-encumbered. Its infinite customisability stopped sitting well with people; too many users, particularly young ones with no HTML knowledge, destroyed their pages in favour of terrible music, awful backgrounds and indecipherable fonts that slowed any computer to a crawl. W3C made a mockery of Myspace despite it being at the top of its game, failing it on over 100 HTML/CSS validity counts. Facebook, which finally became available to more than just university email addresses in the UK, took it upon itself to restrict this approach to “applications” and keep the core shell in its inimitable blue-and-white corporate colours. It was a smooth move (among many others, of course); Myspace dropped like a stone and Facebook passed it in the Alexa Rankings for the first time in April 2008.

Idiocy still prevailed, however, as it often can in open societies. Over the course of a year, the all-too-familiar pattern of people downloading “SuperWall” or “Graffiti” or “Sticky Notes” or “FunWall” or “Poke Pro” ruined the once-simple aesthetic of Facebook. Phishing scams hit an all-time high, just because people wanted unstable applications in order to post glittering gifs or draw a tubular penis on their friend’s wall.

Facebook eventually regulated these with an iron fist and with this move, the irrational hatred of friends for their 27th invite to Vampires vs Werewolves dissipated. The Facebook homepage became more about people, not their showy applications; it’s stayed the same ever since, aside from the odd stylistic change that still garners a short-lived rebellion from more conservative users.

Facebook Chat started to become the easy place to go and chat, avoiding the need for Microsoft’s bloated and ad-heavy Messenger service that contained largely-abandoned contacts. Google Chat, building itself into Gmail and the wider corporate umbrella of the search engine, also succeeded on its simplicity and brand integration; only a tiny profile picture was offered to show individuality.

Yet while these changes restrict outward personality, they instead focus on the real information that’s important to distinguish people from one another. Now, we’re better-placed than ever to read what others write. Style restrictions stop stupid fonts or awful colour schemes from making things unfathomable, while the removal of games and toys means that status updates and inter-friend messages are becoming more of a focal point. It’s really quite charming, even if web safety, censorship and corporate pride are key galvanisers of this trend.

Sadly, however, Facebook’s direction could continue to focus the user experience into something that becomes bland, drab and almost robotic. Look at Google+ – it seems like it’s just going to be Facebook without actually being Facebook. Sure, there’s additional malleability with “Circles”, alongside a strangely boring “Sparks” function that allows you to be flooded with links it thinks you’ll like (but probably don’t), yet its landmark addition – “Hangouts” (well, video chat) – took all of a week for Facebook to match. Microsoft, a huge investor in both Facebook and Skype, isn’t going to let Google escape any time soon… not after Bing’s weedy attempts to challenge the search giant, anyway.

Even though basic HTML, CSS and other design skills improve among the masses as each year passes, the abilities to use them are restricted to websites like WordPress and Blogger. With more people listing their personal website as their Facebook URL, it may just be that people are happy with what they’ve got – individuality just like everyone else.

So long as users are happy, it doesn’t really matter. If Myspace taught us one thing, it’s that social media providers need to move with the times – just not give users too much power. However you define it, individuality can be a dangerous thing for both personal interactions and business models as a whole. Besides, people will always be different. It’s not as if Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Bebo or Myspace will ever define a person; they’re just a social accessory, or an enabler at best.

Please leave your comments either here or on Twitter - @matthewgardner

America’s most delicious export, Ben and Jerry’s, has taken the summer by the horns and recently embarked on their 2011 Scoop Truck Tour across the States, performing the mouth-wateringly noble act of dishing out free ice cream to the populous.

But the most ingenious part of the company’s yummy campaign is their use of Twitter. They are encouraging hungry cheapskate office workers to harness the power of the hashtag #OMGFreeBenJerrys in order to receive a delivery of scoops.

The beauty of this idea lies in their organic tweet-of-mouth advertising, allowing the news to spread throughout the social networking site with the aid of a promoted hashtag.

Blending offline and online promotion like this is an effective way for companies to advertise without ‘advertising.’ It’s been proven that people are more likely to buy what their friends recommend than a company, and it’s clear that social media holds the key to the future of marketing.

The model was arguably pioneered by food carts and trucks, who use social media to give their current location in order to draw in the crowds. Some trucks even gave challenges and passwords to customers in order to acquire tasty freebies.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Ben and Jerry’s will reap the rewards of their campaign, but from the looks of their content customers, Vancouver’s finest won’t be melting away any time soon.

The importance of social media continues to be promoted by experts and advocates alike, and big brands like Coca Cola and Levi’s have found success in reaching customers online, many of them from Generation Z. Twitter has been adopted as the place to go to advertise deals and offers in the hope that followers will retweet them to gain more exposure and attention. If these young decision-makers are interacting with brands and businesses on Twitter and Facebook already, surely it makes sense in the classroom as well?

In a recent CNN article, Enrique Legaspi, a history teacher in Los Angeles, shared his experience with using Twitter in his eighth-grade classroom.

Legaspi said he had an “aha moment” after attending a tech convention in San Francisco. While the use of social media in classrooms is not universally adopted in the US, this example of modern interaction is something educators, like Legaspi, are hoping will catch on. But what are the benefits of using platforms like Twitter during lessons?

When I was in high school, my goal was to sit in the middle of the classroom so I appeared neutral in my quest to learn; sitting in the front meant you were a nerd and the back meant you couldn’t care less about being there. As we did not have the ability to tweet our answer, we were forced to speak our answers and opinions, with not only the fear that it was wrong, but also that your fellow students would laugh if it was.

As explained by students in the article, Twitter gave them a ‘voice’ so they could be noticed. For students who would otherwise not participate, I think this is a good tool to keep the conversations going in the classroom.

However, some parents and teachers are on the fence about whether this is the best use of time at school. One of the downsides is the lack of originality in answers. Since Twitter updates instantly, students can easily piggyback off their friend’s answer to form their opinion, rather that generating one themselves. This back and forth communication, while good to promote brand awareness, is perhaps a step too far for classrooms.

Whether this method of teaching will be adopted by all schools remains to be seen but according to a recent survey, less than two per cent of teachers use Twitter in class. While in the minority, these ‘pioneers’ like Legaspi argue that using social media engages students in the lessons.

Like with any powerful form of communication, there are risks and limitations. How do teachers control the use of idle chatter when conducting these lessons on Twitter?  Unlike a response in the classroom, comments on Twitter are on record for all to see. While teachers should encourage ‘lively’ debates, can you properly explain the benefits of the Industrial Revolution in 140 characters?

What do you think of using Twitter in the classroom? I would love your comments either on here or on Twitter – @YorkshireTexan.

Alice Pyne created an Internet blog in which she described her fight against Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells.  Taking inspiration from the 2007 film, the Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, Alice has made her own Bucket list which is a list of things she wants to achieve before she dies.

Alice says in her Blog “I’ve been fighting cancer for almost four years and now I know that the cancer is gaining on me and it doesn’t look like I’m going to win this one.”

I was greatly moved by some of the things Alice put on her list which include swimming with sharks, eating loads of chocolate at Cadbury World, entering her dog Mabel into a regional Labrador show, staying in a caravan, having a back massage and having a private cinema party with her BFFs.

Alice also said how she wanted to meet Take That and after her site became an internet hit, it has been confirmed that the band’s management has arranged for her to see them.

She has received words of support from all over the world and it has become one of the most talked about subjects on Twitter as well as being discussed on This Morning.

Alice said on her site “Oh dear and I thought that I was just doing a little blog for a few friends!”

Alice’s Blog is www.alicepyne.blogspot.com/ and I am sure it will make you think about what you want to do with your life and how precious the days we have are.

Alice and Mabel.  One of her items on the list was to have a nice photo taken with Mabel and she has definitely achieved that.

I can see his point to some extent. Wayne Rooney has recently embraced Twitter (@waynerooney), probably under some duress from Rio, and has gathered more than 200k followers in a very short space of time. However the hot headed Scouser didn’t realise he would open himself up to a torrent of abuse and recently threatened to put a fellow Tweeter ‘to sleep in ten seconds’ if he came to the Carrington training ground. This kind of attitude, while slightly amusing, is not becoming of a national sports icon idolised by thousands of kids. People are brands in their own right and they need to maintain their own reputation so opening yourself up to the masses via the bulging community of Twitter does hold its risks. I find myself waking up in the morning and then editing some slightly crass tweets I may have sent out after a few drinks. Rio/Rooney etc will defend themselves saying they can bring themselves closer to their fans; however, it sounds from Fergie’s rant that the Twitter accounts of his team might be short lived now. I would have perhaps enjoyed it more if Ferguson ironically set up a Twitter account to shout at his players directly – similar to going round to Lee Sharpe’s house party in 1990 and pulling Ryan Giggs out of a wardrobe by his ear. Footballers are in effect owned by football clubs; when they tweet they not only represent themselves but also their team. Twitter is a fantastic social outlet with uses that cross many different arenas from business to pleasure; however, when a single tweet is sent out and is a permanent mark on the universe making headlines, both on and offline, you have to think twice before pressing ‘tweet.’ Maybe Fergie, the best man manager of all time, has a point – providing those with short fuses and a shorter vocabulary with one the biggest megaphones on the planet is not always a good move.

This announcement, which will affect the 1,200 UK outlets, comes at an interesting time.  Last week CEO of McDonald’s UK, Jill McDonald, said it was time to dismiss clichés about jobs at McDonalds being low-quality. McDonald reminded the Institute of Directors at its annual conference that more than half the executive team at the US-owned business started in one of its 1,200 restaurants and 90 per cent of restaurant managers joined as trainees (according to a Guardian article).

According to a recent FT article, the company is looking to ”woo cash-strapped customers” by making its restaurants more convenient and convivial. This would make transactions shorter per customer, according to Steve Easterbrook, president of McDonald’s Europe, who is responsible for 7,000 restaurants in 39 countries. With almost 13 million customers a day, this would definitely improve turnover and perhaps result in happier customers.

The positives of this change definitely out weight the negatives: quicker transactions, the option to use a card rather than cash, as well as the chance for the fast food chain ”to gather more accurate customer’ ordering habits,” said Easterbrook from McDonald’s Europe.

This progression into the digital era is certainly not the first attempt by the fast food chain. Starting with its website in 1996, McDonald’s has continuously been involved in the social media world. Their US Facebook page, with more than eight million fans, promotes its latest offers and games. There are also several YouTube pages, and most countries have Facebook and Twitter accounts, interacting with customers beyond the till.

Rich Wion, director of social media at McDonald’s, outlined the strategy behind McDonald’s use of Twitter in a recent interview. Before communicating with customers, the social media team spent a year researching the interactions on Twitter to find out what people were talking about, but also how they were talking. An obvious fact is that McDonald’s is a popular topic, but keywords like ‘fries’ and ‘hamburgers’ would generate more buzz than ‘salads.’ According to Wion, their team of ten tweeters follow a schedule, alternating who interacts with the customers on a particular day. With more than 130 thousand followers, McDonald’s is sensing their customers’ hunger for social media interaction, and are responding in a way that also ‘humanises the brand.’

As technology continues to dominate big brands, McDonald’s is very wise to introduce this; a change that proves why the fast food chain remains at the top. The date of when this change will happen in the UK has not been released but I believe, like McDonald’s hamburgers, the new touchscreens will leave the customer satisfied.

This is quite topical for me at the moment. I am moving house and have quickly learnt that estate agents and solicitors both love the old methods of communication. They even make you sign a form that states you understand email isn’t the most secure form of communication you can use! And storing all my personal details etc. on a piece of paper in a filing cabinet in your office is?

So it started me thinking. If both parties in this process embraced new forms of communication, how easy would it be for the potential punter? Here are just a few ways they could use social media to improve their communications:

1) Twitter accounts per branch would allow tweets to be sent out about new properties added or sales agreed on. With the increased use of social media on mobile and the Twitter apps available, potential buyers and renters could access this information real time to find out what properties may interest them.

2) Open up communications on Twitter. If estate agents and solicitors monitored Twitter accounts regularly, then this may result in them attracting more business through quotes and valuation appointments. For agents, it could also mean that questions could be sent back and forth for a certain property. If this was integrated with the website, then these questions and answers could be displayed alongside the listing, as Ebay does so well with questions on an item.

3) Social media case tracking. Solicitors are in the dark ages when it comes to communication. They only want to hear from you via signed forms, phone calls and letters. Emails get a blunt reponse usually and are not trusted. Wouldnt it be nice if your solicitor offered an online case tracking system, which integrated with Twitter or Facebook? You could get a DM or message updating you on your case or passing on some vital information. This would speed the whole process up and take out a lot of the frustration in dealing with solicitors.

4) Facebook groups and pages for estate agents would be useful too. Uploading images and videos of properties onto Facebook would allow people to browse through a property without having to visit the agents website. In order to book viewings or request more info, the call to action would then be to contact the agents using the property ref shown on Facebook.

5) Be proactive. Agents and solicitors could post questions on Twitter about their services (Anyone got any questions on conveyancing?). They could post about interesting developments in cases or chains they are handling which is informative or could even post special offers on fees for a particular month.

Some estate agents have made good strides in this however. The launching of iPhone apps is a great way of connecting with the right audiences (allbeit ignoring the growing Android market). These apps however can cost thousands to develop and whilst they have a huge amount of value in today’s market, monitoring and utilising social media channels is much more cost effective and opens the lines of communication with potential purchasers.

These days it’s hard to find people in these businesses that you can trust instantly, and whilst social media shouldn’t be seen as the only qualifying tool in selecting one of the parties, it is a sure fire way of connecting with a target audience who are increasingly using social platforms as their main forms of communication.

Please feel free to leave comments as I would be interested in knowing your opinions!

(Photo: Estate Agency Academy)

The advantages to this allow users to quickly and easily do all of the above without leaving your website or having to authorising a new application.

How do I implement it?

What’s more Twitter have made the implementation of this feature an absolute breeze so even the most novice of developers can add Web Intents to their website or blog. The two parts (yes, just two) includes a Javascript file call and then a simple task of using a link.

Here’s how in those two easy steps:

Step 1 – The (hardest) easy bit

Step one is adding the Javascript to allow the Web Intents actions (the tweets, replies, follows etc) open in the pop-up window. This is recommended but not actually required. Just remember, the pop-up window will make sure the user stays on your website.

Simply add this Javascript reference to your page before any of the Web Intents actions:

<script src=”http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>

It’s up to you where you add this, whether it is in the “head” section of your HTML or just above your Web Intents actions. The key thing is that the above code must appear BEFORE any of the web intents actions.

Step 2 – The (really) easy bit

The next step is to add the Web Intents actions. These actions are simply a link to a specific URL. These will vary dependent on the action you wish to use. The result of clicking on the link is a new pop-up window with the relevant call to action (See our live examples lower down in the post).

The code for each with a brief explanation can be found below:

Follow & Mini Profile:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=alwaysmikegomez”>Follow Me!</a>

By using the above code you will be presented with a mini profile and the option to follow your selected user.

After “screen_name=” type in the users Twitter username in order to display the correct mini profile.

Tweet:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/tweet”>Send your own message</a>

This code pops up a window allowing the user to send out a normal tweet.

@Reply:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=62862594515546112”>Reply to a Tweet</a>

The above code will pop-up a window allowing the viewer to reply to a specific user and message.

Replace the number at the end with the ID of your own tweet. To find this, click on the time the tweet was sent in Twitter – usually display as “10 minutes ago” or “Apr 20”.

Retweet:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=62862594515546112”>Retweet a Tweet</a>

Will let a user retweet your tweet! Change the number in order to change the message intended for retweeting.

Favourite:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/favorite?tweet_id=62862594515546112”>Favourite a Tweet</a>

This link will allow a user to set a tweet as a favourite for quick reference.

Web Intents in Action

Click on the links below for an example of how they work!

Follow & Mini Profile

Send a Tweet

@Reply to a Tweet

Retweet a Tweet

Favourite a Tweet

How can it be used?

The obvious advantage of this is your website can become a much more interactive and engaging platform for users of Twitter. What’s more you won’t have to worry about users navigating away from your website. In addition to your blog, you may even want to expand a discussion to Twitter.

The above is a basic example and I’m sure those more accustomed to using API’s will create amazing and imaginative applications.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Twitter Web Intents and if you’ve already seen some good examples! For further information have a look at our social media services based in Leeds for help with engagement strategies and influencer targeting.

For the past three years, this has been Barack Obama, who officially launched his re-election campaign this week, indicating that he would be happy to stay in the post for another four years. His position as the incumbent will give him home field advantage but it’s Obama’s use of social media that really puts him ahead of the game.

Back in 2008, Obama announced his vice-presidential selection via text message and email to his supporters, sparking interest from both the press and voters on the junior senator’s use of social media. Now with more than seven million Twitter followers and nearly 20 million on Facebook, President Obama has indeed paved the way for politicians to reach their voters through these two platforms. Still, will it help him win in 2012?

Although it is still early days, the fact that Obama has continually used platforms like Twitter and Facebook during his first term is significant. His White House team regularly updates the website to ensure it reflects both the Obama brand and his promise to actively engage with the community. His 2012 campaign slogan, “It begins with us,” reiterates the fact that Obama is a man of the times and will continue to prove that in 2012.

This will come in handy when Republican candidates like Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker, argue that Obama is disconnected from the American people. Gingrich, 68, has not officially announced his bid but if he does run, his one million Twitter followers and 120,000 Facebook fans will be a pale shadow of the president’s loyal army. The Republicans ought to put forth someone who doesn’t resemble John McCain in 2008, if they have any hope of a successful campaign. However, it isn’t just about the numbers; having a presence outside the internet walls is important as well.

President Obama’s YouTube video has been live for less than a week and only has 370 thousand views, so perhaps he needs to re-evaluate his social media strategy. The first debate has been postponed due to lack of candidates on the Republican presidential ticket. I suggest they get tweeting and updating their statuses or the race won’t be anything more than a landslide for Obama.

What do you think of the video? I would love to hear from you!

So just how social is Twitter? Well according to the good people at Yahoo! and KAIST, not very. The two studies, along with what we already know, raise some interesting points:

Twitter activity isn’t reciprocal

Unlike the other social networks, activity on Twitter isn’t truly reciprocal – far more people follow accounts than are followed back.

Looking at some of the highest profile accounts, it’s easy to see this in action.

As we can see, following a user doesn’t automatically see a reciprocal connection in return, as with many other networks. According to the KAIST study, as pairs only 21.1% of Twitter accounts follow each other, compared to nearly 70% on other networks such as Flickr, suggesting users base their activity on topical interest rather than familiarity. Similarly, estimates put the number of users that never tweet as high as 55%. For many then, Twitter is less about connecting with people and more about subscribing to them.

Twitter is dominated by a few users

As anyone who uses Twitter is aware, there are a number of profiles that you simply can’t avoid. The aforementioned Mr Fry, Lady Gaga and Barack Obama are all prolific tweeters who have significant influence on the site.

However this influence is perhaps greater than many realise, with Yahoo finding that half of all tweets containing links are generated by 20,000 ‘elite’ users. Although it’s never publicly been revealed, the number of Twitter users is currently thought to be somewhere in the region of 200 million, generating on average 140 million tweets a day.

That being said, Yahoo! only looked at those tweets containing links, which obviously lend themselves more to sharing a piece of information rather than just chatting to a friend. So while it’s perhaps more understandable that a few dominate these kind of tweets, with figures like that it’s still tempting to view Twitter as a more traditional form of top-down media, rather than a social network.

The majority of conversation is up-to-date

Unlike other social networks, information shared on Twitter tends to be extremely current. Our helpful studies show that of their sample, nearly 54% of tweets contained headlines and a further 31% related to events occurring that day.

Equally, the whole concept of topics ‘trending’ is connected with this idea and while you’ll always find the odd celebrity death hoax (RIP Jackie Chan), many of the trending topics will be directly connected to breaking news stories.

Both Moussa Koussa’s defection and Eddie Stobart’s death are examples of trending news topics on Twitter. Again, the current nature of the information on Twitter is far more reminiscent of news media than a social platform.

So is Twitter unsocial?

Yes and no. As you can see from the studies, it certainly has features which are more in keeping with traditional forms of news media. Yet that clearly isn’t the whole picture. The KAIST study concludes that the majority of retweets come from users focusing on a similar topic, with celebrities for example largely interacting with other celebrities – in a similar way that we largely interact with our friend and peer groups on other networks. The retweet in itself is surely a sign of the social elements of Twitter, with users sharing with those inside their own groupings.

It’s undeniable as well, that users do interact with each other. We all likely follow more people than have followers, but I certainly keep in touch with friends and colleagues as I’m sure most users do, even if this makes up a small percentage of our total use. Equally, there will always be the argument that any platform which allows users to interact and publish information is a social networking service, and Twitter certainly provides this service.

So how does one define Twitter? Is it a social network as often thought or a more traditional means of news and content distribution? Certainly it has hallmarks of the news media and many people use the service as such, but there are also many social elements. Ultimately the service is unique, occupying both camps and perhaps it’s this dichotomy that makes it such an interesting prospect for marketers.

1) Klout – http://www.klout.com

I am quite aware how pitiful this next statement could sound, but one of the first things I do in a morning, when in front of my machine, is check my Klout score.

Klout is a great starting point for anybody looking to improve their use of Twitter. Klout provides a measurement of your online influence. With a score ranging from 1 – 100, it uses a number of variables to calculate your True Reach, Amplification and Network Score. For me it has been a great tool to track and measure the effect of certain tweets, and to find out who it is I am connecting with as well as who I should be connecting with. It is also a great tool for comparing different users, to find out what works and what fails for both parties, and ultimately what lessons you can learn from how they are using their account.

2) TwitterCounter – http://twittercounter.com

Similar in many ways to Klout, but with less focus on assigning values to concepts such as reach and and influence. TwitterCounter is purely about the hard stats of how often you tweet and how many new followers you are gaining and losing. It also sets achievement targets for you to try and achieve, adding a gaming element to your account.

3) Tweepi – http://tweepi.com

I am quite new to Tweepi, but what I have seen and used so far, I have been impressed with. It presents data in clear and easily understood manner. It also allows you to ‘Flush out Unfollowers’ and ‘Reciprocate’ users who follow you but you don’t follow back.

It is a handy service to get an overview of your account without too much fuss. There are a few other tools to help you identify potential new followers and to join lists you may be interested in. It is quite a neat service.

4) Tweriod – http://www.tweriod.com

Ever wondered what would be the best time to post some curial content via Twitter? Then Tweriod is the tool you need. It fetches data from your followers account and analyses their last 200 Tweets to find the perfect time to publish your tweet to get maximum exposure.

5) Advanced Twitter Search – http://search.twitter.com/advanced

Easily overlooked as a useful tool, but the Advanced Search feature on Twitter is a top tool for searching for topics, keywords and trends. It should always be in your arsenal of Twitter tools as it is light, simple and easy to use.

Let me know if you use any of these yourself, or if you think I have missed any of the list.

When I heard that he had joined Twitter, like most others, I had a look at his page out of intrigue. I think that like most people I was looking to see if he came out with some career killer of a tweet. We’ve had several conversations in the office about whether it is actually him tweeting, or whether it’s someone from his management using social media as a channel to negate the negative press, which he was receiving from the mainstream media.

The Power of @CharlieSheen

It’s very easy to see the power of Charlie Sheen on Twitter. Phrases which Charlie has used in his tweets have regularly featured as trending topics, and he has even taken to using his Twitter account to offer lifestyle advice and position himself as a sane individual.

To take advantage of the huge interest in him, and also to gain an income since Sheen is not currently working on TV, the self-proclaimed unemployed winner has signed with a company called Ad.ly. They are an organisation that set up social networking endorsements for more than 150 brands including Sony, Toyota, NBC and Best Buy. Some of Ad.ly’s stable of celebrity endorsers include celebrity Twitter influencers Kim Kardashian, Snoop Dogg, Cristiano Ronaldo and 50 Cent. Ad.ly’s celebrity tweeters are reported to earn up to $25,000 per tweet. It has also been reported that Charlie Sheen can expect to earn up to $1m in 2011. Not bad for sending out a few tweets, but when you are used to earning $1.2m per TV episode, this is just pocket change.

The @CharlieSheen Bandwagon

Brands have quickly tried to publicise their products and services off the back off Charlie Sheen, and his phrases which have been trending topics. Amongst these are the Red Cross who tried to attract more blood donors by tweeting “We may not collect #tigerblood, but we know our donor volunteers have fierce passion for doing good!”

Whilst McDonalds, who never miss a trick, went for a humorous take on one of Sheen’s phrases tweeting “Despite all the rumours there r no plans 2 bring #mclobster or mcsushi 2 the US menu. We r working on a new menu item called McWinning.”

So what’s next for Charlie Sheen and social media?

I don’t think anyone including Charlie Sheen know the answer to this.

Charlie Sheen – Internet Chef?!

While I’m sure it wasn’t part of Charlie’s grand plan to become a chef, he now has a new show on the Funny Or Die website called “Winning Recipes.” The show was due to be a one off but with 2.5 million views, more than 500 comments and 226 thousand Facebook Likes, it is likely there will be more in the future.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/bfb12aea47/charlie-sheen-s-winning-recipes

While I’m sure Charlie isn’t the next Delia, from judging the support he is getting from his followers, he is #Winning and if he doesn’t make the reported $1m from sponsored tweeting, then I think Charlie needs to take some of his own advice and #PlanBetter!

What are your views on Charlie Sheen and his social media strategy? Is he even using one or is his move into social media the desperate actions of a tormented soul?

Photo: BBC

Deadline: March 11^th 2011

Position: (Precarious) Full Time, Paid

Job description: Do you have TigerBlood? Are you all about Winning? Can you PlanBetter than anyone else? If so, we want you on TeamSheen as our social media TigerBloodIntern!

This unique internship opportunity will allow a hard-working, self-motivated, creative, resourceful and social media savvy individual to work closely with Charlie Sheen in leveraging his social network. The internship will focus on executing a social media strategy that will build on the success Charlie Sheen has attained in setting the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to reach one million followers on Twitter. The TigerBloodIntern is expected to be proactive, monitor the day-to-day activities on the major social media platforms, prepare for exciting online projects and increase Charlie’s base of followers.

You will learn how to promote and develop the social media network of Hollywood’s most trending celebrity.

Sheen made the announcement he was in need of a social media intern on Monday through Twitter and even included a handy link to the application.

It’s no surprise that “TeamSheen” needs assistance with their social responsibilities. The Sheen Machine joined Twitter only last week, and has already set the Guinness World Record for fastest Twitter user to hit one million followers, which took a mere 25 hours and 17 minutes.

Charlie hopes to exploit his media interest and “make a ton from advertising” already in cahoots with Chris Ovitz, the Director of Business Development of ad.ly. The actor is hoping to gain corporate-sponsored advertising tweets. Maybe he’s not as mental as he looks or sounds.

The #Winning candidate will have several responsibilities, and although it is unclear yet if the intern will be ghost tweeting for the star, there are plenty of other challenging tasks to be undertaken. The paid intern will be in charge of changing and taking profile pictures, track fan feedback and live in the life that is Charlie Sheen. Who knows they may even get to sample the Charlie Sheen drug.

This may sound like the dream job, but before you all submit your applications and resign from, what may seem now an overtly boring job, we must consider the challenges that the applicant will face and not enter into the job role light heartedly. . .

It will be a mere feet of a genius as to who can pack the impact of these quotes into only 140 characters:

1. On his daily life:

• “It’s perfect. It’s awesome. Every day is just filled with just wins. All we do is put wins in the record books. We win so radically in our underwear before our first cup of coffee, it’s scary. People say it’s lonely at the top, but I sure like the view.”
• “I probably took more than anybody could survive. … I was bangin’ seven-gram rocks and finishing them because that’s how I roll, because I have one speed, one gear. … I’m different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. Dying’s for fools, dying’s for amateurs.”

As a Charlie Challenge, I offer my admiration to anyone who can pack that much crazy into a 140 character quote.

Bearing in mind the sheer volume of the quotes produced by this linguistic guru, his intern will have to be pretty quick off the mark. However, if you feel you have what it takes i.e. TigerBlood and a #Winning streak, then send in your application. All you have to do is convince Charlie in 75 characters or less that you’re the #Winning candidate:

http://cs.internships.com/charlie-sheen-internship/?adly_id=1373351728

For those of you who find the Sheen is starting to wear thin with regards to Charlie’s internet antics, you may be interested to know that F.A.T have created  a get clean Sheen program. The company have created a free plugin called “Tinted Sheen” for Firefox and Chrome, that allows the searcher to never again encounter Charlie Sheens name or face. If you fancy the browser blocker then it’s yours to download from: http://fffff.at/tinted-sheen/

However, why anybody would want to deny themselves of such wonderful material as this is beyond me:

“I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available. If you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.”

If anyone is interested in applying or wants to share their opinion, I’d love to hear from you!

(Photo: Twitter)

In case you wondered why these topics are trending, thousands of women are currently swooning over Michel Roux Jr making bread, and whose soft tones and French allure are really hitting the mark with the UK ladies. White Hart Lane is currently under siege from some marauding Italians. Dear Maria, an Internet-only released music track has sold 500,000 copies without receiving any radio air play (sounds like a topic for another blog!). Biggie Day is a day dedicated to the memory of the notorious BIG.

So the concept is, that if I am launching a new website or refreshing my SEO or PPC strategy, could I go through the last few months of trending topics and look for related terms to my products and services? If these keywords are new or hadn’t been high profiled before, they would not have registered on traditional keyword research tools. So I may be able to quickly launch new content on this topic, and rank highly within days naturally or get very cheap paid clicks.

I will monitor the ranking and traffic/referring keywords for this post over the next two weeks and report back my findings. Fingers crossed I win the £50 too!

It seems Google is now displaying the profile pictures from Twitter accounts next to their organic listing.

It doesn’t seem to be the case for everyone’s profile and appears to only show for high profile accounts – may be dependent on number of followers or something similar.