Our task highlighted just what you can do with video content and how you can make your message more memorable.  If a picture is worth a thousand words then video has the potential to pack an impressive punch.

According to recent research by Google’s DoubleClick, rich media generates somewhere between a 400% and 700% increase in viewer engagement and response rates compared to static content. It’s no surprise when you can condense pages of text into a short snappy video of a minute or so.

Not only this, but it can also help cultivate your online community. The number of online video users is expected to double to more than 1 billion people by 2015. So, there’s certainly a captive audience, looking to consume and engage with video content. And with video is becoming increasingly favourable in the search engine rankings, it’s well worth investing in some eye-catching videos for your website or blog.

TMIM has featured a video series looking at using video beyond conventional public relations so that it generates leads as well.  In terms of PR, video can really bring company to life and set your company apart from the crowd. Overall it gives you license to deliver your content in a much more creative way.

But the smart thing to do is create videos that both enhance your reputation and generate leads. Existing and new audiences can be reached through a medium that has engagement at its heart, so why not make the most of it and deliver compelling content that features real life case studies that demonstrate the benefits your business brings, with personable spokespeople that can deliver the key messages?

Engaging video content presents a more credible view of your company and customer endorsements will boost your reputation and result the all-important sales.

Yesterday the CIPR Social Media Conference went some way to address this very modern PR dilemma.  The speakers were all top of their game and fascinating in their approach to social media.

Digital Media Manager, Thomas Knorpp from Sainsbury’s revealed a refreshingly laid back approach, choosing quality over quantity in terms of who they responded to, aiming to start solving people’s problems and creating interesting content instead of the usual message monologue big brands adopt as their ‘strategy’.

ASDA’s Head of Corporate Comms, Dominic Burch revealed they had chosen a ‘suck it and see’ approach where as a company they encouraged all staff to get involved and monitor the result – a bold move for a company of its size. As Dominic put it, “It’s only a mistake if you make it twice” – a phrase I shall certainly be repeating again.

The million dollar question of the day was; “What’s the best way to analyse and present the results of social media to your Client…?” The answer, disappointingly, was that there are no quick fixes!

You get what you pay for and while free tools such as Google Analytics, Twilert and Nutshell Mail offer a rudimentary overview, you really need to invest in a good bespoke tool for an accurate analysis if you are going to start taking social media seriously. Luckily, here at Speed, we’ve invested in SM2. This is arguably the best in the monitoring tool in the business and yes, while you do need to invest a little time setting up your searches the effort to gain ratio is more than satisfactory.

Myself and my attending colleagues all left with our heads buzzing with a renewed vigour and respect for the power of social media. Interesting, yes; insightful, absolutely; but without the reassurance of a definitive value attached – whether that be in line with comforting AVE figures or even a way to monitor ‘intent’ to purchase – the struggle to justify additional budget, time and resource with Clients of a certain nature continues…

Take a look at the page now and let us know which places you think are fantastic -  http://on.fb.me/dFzmkv

And of course, feel free to follow us on Twitter. We’re @PR_Eats!

If it’s good enough for Lord Sugar then it’s good enough for us.  Speed’s digital apprentice day is in full swing. Which got us thinking.  Would be great to give some young, aspiring and talented people out there the opportunity to get involved.

The day is all about immersing ourselves in the digital world – looking at how we take a brand and use online tools to help deliver hype, awareness, participation and commercial gain.

If you’re interested in working in a London PR agency to gain some experience then get in touch TODAY and tell us why you should be hired.  Rules: in no more than 140 characters.  Enter via: comment on blog post or Twitter @speedcomms

Seven Days launches tonight and is Channel 4’s new documentary series which is claims will break down the old rules of reality TV and which it no doubts hopes will do for the next decade what Big Brother did for the last. There are 25 ‘contributors’ to the documentary/reality show who represent the ‘ordinary’ people living and working in Notting Hill. The contributors will be filmed over the course of seven days and on the final day an hour long show airing the preceding week’s activities will broadcast on Wednesday night.

So far, so what right? Well, here comes the social media bit…

Members of the public will be encouraged to interact with all the stars using an online service called ChatNav. ChatNav will collate social media conversations about the show (Twitter, Facebook and YouTube channels are already up and running) to determine which characters the producers will focus on over the next seven days – popularity will be represented by the increasing (or decreasing) size of the characters image on the screen. For those with the smallest images, being eliminated from future filming is a very real possibility. In addition to determining the focus over the show, viewers will also have the power to comment on decisions the characters need to make in relation to their personal, social and work lives. According to Channel 4, this makes the viewer not just an editor, but an active participant.

Sounds like an interesting proposition and if it can mirror even a tenth of the popularity of Big Brother, it will do very well indeed. Let the experiment commence…

Yes, the woman is obviously mentally disturbed, and for that we mustn’t laugh, but being mad aside, the hilarity isn’t in the typical vigilanty ‘burn the witch’ reaction from the British public, rather the more creatively funny responses to the story….

The genius ‘Revenge of the Cat’ spoof YouTube video has attracted thousands of viewers (and blanket national coverage). But for me funnier still is some of the comments from people who post their ‘reaction’ to the story. My favourites so far have come from the comments on The Sun website:

‘Don’t know what al te fuss is about, Top Cat lived in a bin for years. lol ’ – ‘lol‘ indeed Ellie1975

And my second favourite…

‘ just opened my wheelie bin and a wasp came out. What sort of sicko would shut a wasp in a wheelie bin? I hope the full resourses of the law are brought to bear on the individual responsible. Forget murderers, rapists, muggers and paedos, just catch this wasp molester now!’ DaveWM

Dumb..of course. Just what you need after a frantically busy week with seemingly no end in sight…most definitely!

Amazon’s UK tentacle is upping its range of goods for sale to include thousands of grocery and food items and lashings of lovely booze.

The Daily Telegraph – Mozilla unveils Firefox 4 beta

Firefox 4, the latest version of the popular internet browser, has been released as a public beta, and adopts some of Google Chrome’s features.

Computer Weekly – Marks & Spencer online sales grow 49 per cent

Marks & Spencer’s online business M&S Direct saw sales rise 49 per cent in the first quarter of the new financial year. Overall UK sales were up 4.4 per cent, with the online side of the business playing a strong role in the performance. The company has invested in its online business in recent months. It extended its Shop Your Way multi-channel ordering service to more than 400 stores and has launched a fully mobile-enabled website.

Total Telecom – Ridley Scott teaming up with YouTube on documentary
Google-owned YouTube described it as a “historic cinematic experiment” intended to “document one day, as seen through the eyes of people around the world.”

Management Today – £35m a year for the Business Link website? Really??

Opinion was split when new business minister Mark Prisk announced the Government was pulling the plug on Business Link: although many business owners have long considered it a total waste of taxpayers’ money, others sing its praises. However, it is now reported that the website cost the taxpayer an extraordinary £105m over the last three years.

The Guardian – Facebook applications requesting permission to steal your data

The world of Facebook can be a dangerous place, as two separate incidents this week have proven.

Apple boss Steve Jobs has defended conditions at a Taiwanese electronics firm that products the firm’s popular iPhone, following a spate of suicides.

BBC – The Hurt Locker producers to sue illegal file-sharers

Voltage Pictures, the company behind Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker, has filed lawsuits against alleged illegal file-sharers of the movie in the US.

CIO – Government to release IT contract financial details

The coalition government will publish all new IT contracts it signs from July, as part of what prime minister David Cameron has called “greater transparency”.

The Register – No-good scareware varmints exploit Wild West game

Varmints are exploiting interest in a treasure hunt tied to popular Wild West-themed game Red Dead Redemption to lay scareware traps.

IT PRO – Thieves steal virtual items from hotel
While the Habbo Hotel thefts were virtual, there were still real financial ramifications.

Total Telecom – Google sites increase share of online video viewing – comScore
YouTube accounted for bulk of Google’s 13.09 billion videos viewed online in April.

ComputerWorldUK – Government to release IT contract financial details
The coalition government will publish online all new IT contracts it signs from July, as part of what prime minister David Cameron has called “greater transparency”.

The Daily Telegraph – Sony: ebooks to overtake print within five years

Sales of ebooks will overtake print books within the next five years, Sony has predicted.

The new government has revealed the ministers who will be in charge of key technology issues in the UK. Former shadow culture and creative industries minister Ed Vaizey has now been named minister for culture, communications and creative industries.

BBC – Google launches smart TV service

Search giant Google has launched a TV service that unites live television with the web. The “smart TV” service allows people to search both live channels as well as content from websites such as YouTube.

BBC – Licence fee ‘to fund superfast broadband’ roll-out

The BBC licence fee could be used to part-fund the roll-out of superfast broadband across the UK. Details of the plan were outlined in the coalition deal struck between the Tories and the lib Dems.

IT PRO – IDC: Tablets will sell well, laptops will sell better
Analyst firm predicts strong sales for tablets over the next four years, but they won’t even make a dent in the laptop space.

Total Telecom – Google predicts online search battle on mobile phones
Internet giant sees ‘profound’ shift in proliferation of mobile Web browsing.

ComputerWorldUK – Whitehall departments slammed for IT procurement practices
Government departments have been criticised after it was revealed some are spending over eight times too much for printer cartridges.

CBR – General election has missed social media opportunity

The political parties battling it out on the eve of the general election have missed an opportunity to woo voters through social media, according to StrongMail’s UK MD. Paul Bates told CBR that politicians are unaware of the impact social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have on the younger generation of voters. “I think the approach to social media this election has been higgledy-piggledy,” he told CBR.

The Financial Times – White House unveils push on broadband rules

The Obama administration on Wednesday handed Google and other web content providers a significant victory as it announced that cable and telecommunications companies would face tough new regulations on how they manage their high-speed internet networks.

Computer Weekly – Cybercriminals trading in large volumes of Facebook accounts, say researchers

Cybercriminals are selling fake and stolen accounts on social networking site Facebook in bulk in the underground economy, according to security researchers. Criminals typically use Facebook accounts to send spam, send links to malicious software and to commit fraud.

BBC – Facebook fixes embarrassing security flaw

Facebook has rushed to fix a security flaw that allowed users to eavesdrop on the live chats of their friends and see their pending friend requests.

The Register – Tories buy YouTube home page

The Tories are making an election-day buy on YouTube’s home page in a bid to get their message in front of “millions of voters.”