Archive for October 2008
Random Fridays
Posted on: October 31, 2008
I have decided that as my brain probably only works at 66% on a Friday I’m going to make it my random post day for whatever I’ve found recently that amuses me but that is entirely unrelated to this blog.
Todays post is courtasy of my friend who sent me a link about a Thai Temple made from a million recycled bottles – amazing!
More pictures and information here.
The Nicest Man in Blogging?
Posted on: October 30, 2008
Due to the fast pace nature of this industry and my current knowledge in this field (just over 6 months) I often read some of the more authoritative blogs for suggestions and learnings while running campaigns. Now and again I email the authors if I have a specific questions and every time I have had a response to my questions – which is very much appreciated.
Recently I emailed Mark White from Better Business Blogging who I have to say was one of the nicest, most helpful people I have spoken to. Not only did he answer my questions in full with further explanation of his points, he had obviously taken time out of his day to answer my questions fully and not just a quick 30 second email and so to Mark White I would like to say a massive Thank You!
Yesterday I found this article on adweek ‘Small Brands Teach Big Lessons’. Firstly I love the fact that a drunken idea down the pub has actually resulted into a successful business, especially as it is for such a random product, ‘Bacon Salt’ – a spice that makes everything taste like bacon. But mostly I love the way that they have managed to make this a success.
Starting off with a MySpace page they spent hours messaging people that mentioned bacon any where in their profile (at the time 37,000 people). The result of this was a massive interest in their product Bacon Salt and too many orders coming through for their production to initially cope with.
The key to their success however wasn’t just that there was a massive gap in the market for Bacon Salt, it was by getting personal with the people they interacted with and who contacted them. As summarised by one of the founding partners Justin Esch “It’s the simple things people appreciate” and they found that the more they interacted with their customers and readers the more their sales increased
This is where most brands fail when they attempt to get involved in social media as they so often put themselves out there and still behave as though they were in a one way conversation. So instead of trying to do it all at once, they should start off small and do it properly. This would allow them to interact with the people they meet and make real connections instead off a one off statement or conversation.
Twine & Web 3.0
Posted on: October 28, 2008
- In: Other | Semantic web
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I have just discovered Twine which is a new generation of social bookmarking that combines Twitter like functions as well as allowing you to make connections and meet new people. It is like a social network for sharing, organizing and finding knowledge – a social network search engine if you like. Described as a hub of collective intelligence, its aim is to become your primary touch-point for content on the Web.
While I’m still getting to grips with how it works and creating my own twines etc. I also found an interesting interview on Future Blogger with Nova Spivack – Twine Creator and CEO, about Twine and its direction as well as the future of the Semantic web.
This graph from the interview looks at the future direction of the web, and that how as technologies become more advanced how our methods of finding information on the web evolve.
Interestingly it suggests that the era of Web 2.0 will soon be over – well 2010. Meaning that the internet will be moving from its current social system to a semantic approach where technologies will become more intelligent and so organise our information by having a better understanding of the meaning of our data.
While this may mean that Google will have to up its game in the next couple of years to maintain its dominance of the Web, it does mean that as we start to enter this web 2.0/ 3.0 mashup we should probably start thinking about taking a semantic approach.
Brands In Social Media
Posted on: October 24, 2008
I came across some really interesting research by immediate future about the top brands in social media. Written in a tone that even those not digitally savvy could understand it highlights the growing importance of social media for today’s brands. The research looks at areas such as the share of voice as well as sentiment from buzz tracking and social bookmarking tools such as Digg of the top 100 brands in social media .
Interestingly the report mentions that ‘the public is having conversations about brands and products regardless of sector’ so although the graph below shows a 12% share of voice in the financial services sector there were no financial brands in the top 25.
You can find the full report here if you would like to find out more.
Coco Pops Issues
Posted on: October 23, 2008
- In: Other
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I have recently started to have some serious issues about the latest Kellogg’s advert for their Big Bake campaign – is it just me or is the kid in the advert seriously annoying as well as being really weird?
In fact I have started to notice that all the kids in cereal adverts are just bizarre. When I was a kid Coco Pops was my favourite cereal but with the weird kids and the advert where the Coco Pops move around the yellow washing up glove – I’m sticking to yoghurt.
The Beginning….
Posted on: October 21, 2008
- In: Other
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I would love my first post to be something deeply profound and insightful for you all, but deciphering these thoughts out from the rest may take some time so I though I would introduce my self and say hi and thank you for reading my blog!
As you can see from my about section I work in a media agency doing digital PR and blogging for our clients. After a couple of trial runs I thought it was about time I had a proper blog of my own – firstly with the intention of creating my own hub to find all the information and things I like online, but also as a place to share my learnings in social media as the industry and my knowledge grows.
I hope you like it!
Social Whisper 
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