Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Law firms in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. have filed a class action lawsuit against Google Inc, alleging that Google Buzz service shared personal data without the consent of users, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The suit has been filed on behalf of one Eva Hibnick from Florida – chosen to represent the proportion of 31.2 million Gmail users who are unhappy with Buzz.

Hibnick’s lawyers reportedly accuse Google of breaking laws in relation to legal communications with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act alleged to have been contravened.

The lawsuit reportedly asks for an assurance that Google, which says it has not yet seen the lawsuit, will not repeat Buzz Read the rest of this entry »

The first episode of the latest series from HBO, the esteemed makers of shows including The Sopranos and The Wire, is premiering on YouTube prior to its network launch on Sunday.

‘How to Make It in America’, starring Bryan Greenberg (One Tree Hill), Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie) and rapper Kid Cudi, follows the escapades of two twenty-something New Yorkers trying to ‘Make It’ in the fashion business.

The YouTube marketing approach for HBO follows the success of ‘The United States of Tara’ which launched online last year, notching up more than 500,000 YouTube views on its first day.

YouTube is believed to be actively pursuing deals with programme makers while cable channels are seeing the potential for social media promotion of new releases via YouTube.

Sadly the pilot episode is blocked on UK YouTube so here’s the trailer instead:

A new report from Forrester and the Association of National Advertisers shows 77% of marketers increasing spend on social media  in 2010,

Social media therefore tops marketer’s adjusted spending agenda, followed by web advertising, SEO and email marketing.

The determined march towards new channels emerges in the context of a TV advertising study that shows 62% of marketers think TV advertising is less effective than it used to be.

19% go as far as to predict the 30 second TV ad will be dead within 10 years.

Marketers are also looking closely at online video as an alternative to TV, 46% saying they will move spend into this area. Read the rest of this entry »

The dramatic rise in new media use by marketers has been captured by Junta 42 in new research that shows social media use up 500 percent since 2008, with blog and video use more than doubling.

Over the same period, use of email newsletters has declined slightly, along with that of whitepapers and cases studies.

The survey of 259 marketers also found that marketers expect to allocate a third of their budgets to creating content in 2010, up from 11% in 2009 and small businesses spend twice as much on content as large ones do.

IAB research, released yesterday shows that senior marketers believe PR is the first port of call when planning social media campaigns.

In their survey of 80 senior marketers, the IAB found that while social media falls under the marketing umbrella, 33% said that they thought social media to be primarily a PR discipline.

The three other disciplines marketers thought might be involved in social media were customer services (16%), research (12%) and IT (7%).

On the basis of this, the IAB recommends marketers set up social media teams made up of those disciplines they believe should be involved in social media, the make up of which will vary from sector to sector. Read the rest of this entry »

Marketers expect to allocate a third of their budgets to creating content in 2010, up from 11% in 2009, the annual survey from Junta 42 has revealed.

Social media, e-newsletters and blogs remain the top favoured content channels, with mobile the fastest growing segment.

The survey of 259 marketers also found that small businesses spend twice as much on content as large ones do.

Overall, 60% of marketers planned to increase spend on content in 2010.

Related research from Hubspot shows that small business blogging generates 55% more website visitors and 102% more Twitter followers.

Pope Benedict XVI has spoken about the importance of new digital channels in an address on the Vatican’s YouTube channel.

In a sixty second clip, he urges followers to make use of “the resources made available by the digital age in which we live”  describing it as “the urgent and unavoidable task” in the build up to The 44th World Day of Social Communications on May 16.

On his Pope2you website, the Pope’s Facebook, iphone application and YouTube channel, ‘The Vatican’ are evidence of his enthusiastic adoption of new media, though he is not yet on Twitter.

While Coca-Cola has issued guidelines for staff on how they should represent themselves and their company online, Manchester United has taken the Orwellian approach of removing its players from social media sites altogether.

In a post on its website on Friday, the club announced that none of its players maintain personal profiles on social networking sites.

“The club wishes to make it clear that no Manchester United players maintain personal profiles on social networking websites,” said the note posted on ManUtd.com. “Fans encountering any web pages purporting to be written by United players should treat them with extreme scepticism. Any official news relating to Manchester United or its players will be communicated via ManUtd.com.” Read the rest of this entry »

McDonald’s has revealed plans for its Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics marketing campaign which will include a Facebook and Twitter scavenger hunt to promote Chicken McNuggets which, according to McDonald’s, is typically the favourite food of athletes at each Olympics.

The online campaign will feature the theme ‘How do you McNugget?’ and other PR activities include a 300 strong all star McDonald’s team, specially selected to run two restaurants at the games, along with celebrity endorsements. Here’s one of their ads:

Coca-Cola has published a guide to engaging with social media for its 92,400 employees worldwide, recognising that its brand reputation is now in the hands of more than just a handful of marketing executives and pr representatives.

There are three tiers of spokespeople in the brand’s ‘Online Social Media Principles’ document; unofficial, official and a shadowy referral unit, known only by an email address, online.relations@na.ko.com.

The official spokespeople will be certified through a Coca-Cola social media certification program before being turned loose to represent the company online.

Unofficial spokespeople, i.e., any employee knocking about on social media sites  are urged to remember that anything they say online may reflect on the company and to remain true to the company’s core values. Read the rest of this entry »