The standout figure for me from Econsultancy/Bigmouthmedia’s Social Media & Online PR research is that 54% of companies see lack of resources as the main barrier to better customer engagement.
Tell me about it, maintaining a daily blog or any other type of regular online content is no frivolous task. No way most companies are going to pull that off without some outside help. While content is hard, you can at least measure the bejesus out of it.
No more mealy mouthed EAV (equivalent advertising value) conjecture for online PR, oh no, the free magic that is Google analytics will tell you exactly how well each post is doing (I have big hopes for this one).
So while there are thousands of similar, fit looking 27 year old footballers turning out all over the country on a Saturday, there’s only one that scored 5 goals in a Premiership match last week. How a good blog became Jermain Defoe I’m not sure, I’m not even a Tottenham fan. What I do know, is he’s a goal scorer (pick him Fabio), as is this week’s Ad Age top ranked viral from Heineken:
Embedded this at the bottom of a post on Wednesday but it really deserves separate billing, especially on a Friday. Indebted to @gsterling at Local Social Summit#lss09 for showing it to us.
Ford Motor Company, who recruited 100 bloggers for its Fiesta Movement social media initiative in March has posted a 5% increase in year on year car sales for Q3, representing a 2.2% increase in U.S. marketshare.
While the bankruptcies of GM & Chrysler and the government’s trade in initiative ‘Cash for Clunkers’ no doubt had an effect, Ford’s bold social media initiative has been a runaway success with figures last month showing 4.3 million YouTube views, 500,000+ Flickr views, 3 million+ Twitter impressions and 50,000 interested potential customers, 97% of which don’t own a Ford currently.
Speaking at Blogworld & New Media Expo in October, Scott Monty, Ford’s multimedia communications manager said ”Companies that don’t acknowledge and engage in this new social More »
Speaking at the Government’s digital creative industry conference C&binet (surely they meant C@binet) late yesterday, Simon Fuller, Spice Girls’ creator said that content providers were the key to future success online.
Fuller describes digital media as a “war zone” where creative ideas will dominate. He referred to his own operation, 19 Entertainment, as a “bespoke aggregator”. “The next big idea could come from some kid in India. That’s the way it should be – I’m excited,” he said, quoted in The Guardian.
Fuller said that while he believed certain companies – such as Google and Microsoft – have a “big head start” in online there is still room for many players in the emerging digital media market. More »
Procter and Gamble loo roll brand Charmin is searching for five “super-fun” bloggers to record hundreds of thousands of customer visits to its temporary restrooms in Times Square for five weeks from 23rd November.
Part of Charmin’s ‘Enjoy the go’ campaign, successful candidates will be appointed Charmin Ambassadors whose role will be to blog about their experiences and share content on Facebook and Twitter. Alarmingly they’ll also be posting video content.
This is not the first time Procter and Gamble has set out its stall in Times Square. In 2008 Charmin ran “Plush Potties for the People” tour across the US which also finished in Times Square. The 2009 campaign is however the first time P&G has used blogging and social mediato push the brand and the first time it has hired a consumer as a spokesperson.
The five appointed will be paid $10,000 each but they’ll have to be prepared to answer questions like “why do you ‘enjoy the go’ more than anyone else” and “how will you entertain bathroom guests”. Interviews will be held on November 5th at The Hilton Hotel, NY if you’re interested. More »
In a post on his blog yesterday Stephen Fry reflected on his role in the Jan Moir Twitter storm last week and also a regretted comment he made on Channel 4 the week before “let’s not forget which side of the border Auschwitz was on.” Fry explains “The words just formed themselves in a line in my head, as words will, and marched out of the mouth.”
It was odd to see Fry talking politics on Channel 4 in any case, especially in that shirt he was wearing and of course the opportunity to gaffe live on TV as an entertainer is multiplied many times, as Anton Du Beke and Brucey have experienced recently in that highly controversial political show, Strictly.
Writing something first before sending it anywhere at least gives you the chance to weigh up and edit what you’re expressing. My rule of thumb on Twitter is never to say anything too negative, if I can help it. More »
Whatever your politics, the release of a behind the scenes video showing David Cameron and William Haig chatting about putting together his keynote speech today is an impressive demonstration of how You Tube can work in party politics if the content is right.
In a week when Cameron has been attacked for being an inscrutable toff with a talent for spin, what better way to counter than show him informally at large, in his work place, chatting to class busting favourite William Hague about not making his speech too dull. More »
The US Federal Trade Commission has released new guidelines which will force bloggers to disclose any commercial interest they have in products they promote. In the first update to its endorsement guidelines in 30 years, the FTC’s move is seen as an attempt to bring the blogosphere into line with endorsement codes long followed by broadcast stations, newspapers and magazines.
“We look at it from the perspective of the consumer and the principle being that a consumer has the right to know when they’re being pitched a product,” said Richard Cleland, assistant director of FTC’s advertising practices division. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s an email or Twitter or someone standing on a street corner.” More »
Andy Bond, Chief Executive of Asda outlined his new vision for a “transparent” business yesterday, “run for the consumer by the consumer” including web cams of the farms where Asda’s milk and carrots come from and a team of bloggers recruited to tell shoppers about the business, rather than “a bunch of PR consultants” said Bond.
Bond has labelled his new way of doing business as “democratic consumerism” drawing comparisons with President Obama’s politics, “offering openess, transparency, collaboration and dialogue”. More »
I spend a lot of my time on this blog advocating the power of blogging and why organisations should be doing it, little knowing that one of my own stories was about to prove the point, and how!
Around about this time on Friday, I was blogging about the Sarah Brown Twitter coverage in The Guardian and noticed that her blog followers had overtaken Stephen Fry’s so I made that the headline and posted it just before nine.
The standout figure for me from Econsultancy/Bigmouthmedia’s Social Media & Online PR research is that 54% of companies see lack of resources as the main barrier to better customer engagement.
Ford Motor Company, who recruited 100 bloggers for its Fiesta Movement social media initiative in March has posted a 5% increase in year on year car sales for Q3, representing a 2.2% increase in U.S. marketshare.
Speaking at the Government’s digital creative industry conference 
Procter and Gamble loo roll brand Charmin is searching for five “super-fun” bloggers to record hundreds of thousands of customer visits to its temporary restrooms in Times Square for five weeks from 23rd November.
In a post on his blog yesterday Stephen Fry reflected on his role in the Jan Moir Twitter storm last week and also a regretted comment he made on Channel 4 the week before “let’s not forget which side of the border Auschwitz was on.” Fry explains “The words just formed themselves in a line in my head, as words will, and marched out of the mouth.”
Whatever your politics, the release of a behind the scenes video showing David Cameron and William Haig chatting about putting together his keynote speech today is an impressive demonstration of how You Tube can work in party politics if the content is right.
The US Federal Trade Commission has released new guidelines which will force bloggers to disclose any commercial interest they have in products they promote. In the first update to its endorsement guidelines in 30 years, the FTC’s move is seen as an attempt to bring the blogosphere into line with endorsement codes long followed by broadcast stations, newspapers and magazines.
Andy Bond, Chief Executive of Asda outlined his new vision for a “transparent” business yesterday, “run for the consumer by the consumer” including web cams of the farms where Asda’s milk and carrots come from and a team of bloggers recruited to tell shoppers about the business, rather than “a bunch of PR consultants” said Bond.
