February 11th, 2010 by Wadds

Angry Paperchase customers vent fury on Amazon and Twitter

Paperchase customers are using Twitter and Customer Reviews on Amazon (the product page has since been pulled) to vent their fury at the alleged copyright theft of work by independent artist HiddenEloise.

On Twitter #paperchase is trending and the @paperchaseuk Twitter account has been grabbed by someone offering to help the company respond to its audience. There has been no activity on an official looking Paperchase Facebook page since 2008.

Econsultancy’s Aliya Zaidi has written an excellent summary and analysis of the story making the point that social media has become an incredibly effective tool to expose corporate misdemeanors.

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February 9th, 2010 by Wadds

Ten things you need to know about Google Buzz

Google Buzz started to roll out to Gmail users this evening in a move said to challenge Facebook and Twitter.

  1. It’s available immediately to all Gmail users; unlike Google Wave it isn’t restricted to beta users. According to Google it will appear in your inbox in the next day or so
  2. Google Buzz is a realtime social network like Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. You can use it to share links, photos, videos, and status updates with your network
  3. Updates from people in your network will automatically be posted your Gmail inbox
  4. The network will prioritise messages from people in your network that the Google Buzz algorithms determine are most relevant to you
  5. Google Buzz incorporates a function similar to Twitter’s retweet. Users can recommend posts that might be of interest to other people in their network
  6. You don’t need to build another network as you’ve done before with networks such as Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. Google Buzz will use your email history to build out your network. If Gmail isn’t your primary email client consider importing your address book from other email clients
  7. Using the Google Buzz application on your mobile phone (iPhone and Android) will enable you to include a GPS-generated location with your updates
  8. Updates will be made available to everyone in your network and indexed by Google as a default. Privacy settings and user-defined groups will enable information to be locked down
  9. An enterprise version is in the works for companies that want to use it as a social communication platform
  10. Is a competitive threat to other social networks? Potentially, but it depends on uptake. Gmail has 175 million potential users. Facebook has 400 million users. Twitter has an estimated 25 million users
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January 25th, 2010 by Wadds

Social media 1920s-style: the medium has changed but the message remains the same

I am fascinated by the messages on old postcards. The limited space means that they are often no more than single sentences written in clipped English.

This one was sent sometime after 1912 judging by the George V half-penny stamp.

The message asks its recipient to meet the sender off a train.

“Just a line to let you know I shall come on Friday. I shall reach Meldon with afternoon train and expect you will be able to come to the station.”

It’s succinct and to the point. It’s also social. A postcard can be passed around and shared. Now we’d use email, Facebook, SMS or Twitter of course, but the message would be equally brief.

Almost a hundred years on the content of our messages hasn’t changed, only the way we send and share them.

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January 18th, 2010 by Wadds

PCC rules against digital door stepping

In a move that has implications for newsgathering via social media the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) ruled today that it was inappropriate for a journalist to contact the family of a dead individual via Facebook. It said that such a move breached Clause 5 of the Editors’ Code of Practice by intruding on the grief or shock of a bereaved individual.

The case arose after a Sunday Times journalist contacted a member of the family of a dead student to question a prior PPC complaint that a story contained inaccuracies.

Oliver Luft at the Press Gazette has the full story.

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November 17th, 2009 by Wadds

Don’t sync updates: different networks, different audiences (lessons from a 13-year old)

I got an ear bashing from my 13 year old goddaughter this weekend. Why, she asked, do you keep posting nonsense on your Facebook news feed. It’s because I’ve synced my Twitter feed with my Facebook feed I explained. “Twitter?” she said.

My Twitter network is made up of a different group of people from my Twitter network. Facebook is family, friends, mates from school, university and stalkers. Twitter is mainly people from my professional life.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some crossover between the different networks. Life isn’t perfectly ordered. But inevitably when I push a message automatically from one network to another some folk get confused.

It could be about to get a lot worst. Thanks to a deal between LinkedIn (exclusively professional contacts in my network) and Twitter last week I can sync my LinkedIn feed with my Twitter feed, either automatically, or selectively by adding a hashtag #in to my tweets.

By syncing updates between various networks I’m not sharing a message with a network but have reverted to an aged-old broadcast model. Each network has a different audience and I should tailor my content appropriately.

Stephen Davis has made this case to me on numerous occasions. Have a read of this aptly titled blog post – Tweeters: Stop spamming my Facebook! I’m starting to see his point.

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July 8th, 2009 by Wadds

Lifestreaming is bollocks

Image representing Ged Carroll as depicted in ...
Image byrenaissance chambara (http://www.flickr.com/photos/renaissancechambara/)

via CrunchBase

Anthropologists and historians in the future looking back on the 21st century will have an easy job. A cross section of life is laid out in blogs, Flickr Twitter, Facebook and forums.

We’re micro-blogging more than ever but are blogging less. Robert Scoble and Steve Rubel are among the A list bloggers that have switched from blogging to so-called lifestreaming.

Ged Carroll notes that Robert Scoble has seen a dramatic drop in readership since his move towards lifestreaming.

Little wonder. Lifestreaming is dull. Most people simply don’t have interesting enough lives. At best it’s a sequential record of random events recorded in a sentence or an image. To claim its anything else misses the point.

My use of Flickr is the closest I get to lifestreaming. To anyone outside my immediate network of family and friends my stream of images is boring as hell. But I make no apologies. It’s a personal record and it’s not intended to engage.

Ged reckons that blogging has passed through the hype cycle and is maturing. He’s spot on.

“Over the past ten years or so, we have seen blogging climb to what can be reasonably considered to be a peak of unrealistic expectations and it could be considered to heading towards a trough of disillusionment.”

Likewise Stuart Bruce says blogging – not lifestreaming – is the way forward if you want to develop thought leadership. He makes the point that blogs are far more Google friendly than micro-blogs.

Take note.


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May 18th, 2009 by Wadds

Speed and the Team in social media summer sizzler book launch

platinum_-jo-rees

We’re working with Loewy colleagues at The Team on a social media campaign aimed at positioning Platinum by Jo Rees, published by Random House tomorrow, as this summer’s hottest beach book. The Daily Express has described it as “a blue-chip, classic bonkbuster [that] makes contemporary chick-lit look down at heel”, so we’re clearly working with good material.

We’ve created a cracking campaign which will see the novel’s three main characters come to life on Twitter with content written by Jo herself. If you want to follow the launch make these characters your friends and follow their feeds.

Peaches Gold (@peachesgold) is an LA madam, servicing a celebrity clientele on both sides of the pond. Frankie Willis (@frankiewillis) is a young personal trainer slaving away below deck on a mega-yacht owned by a shady Russian oligarch. And finally, Lady Emma Harvey (@ladyemmaharvey) is old money aristocracy, a social mover and shaker with a taste for Asprey and holidays in Mustique.

There’s also a Facebook campaign to follow. Watch this space for updates as the campaign rolls out.

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