After last night’s stunning X Factor performances, it’s time to make some predictions for tonight – based on what everyone is saying online.
(Click to see a larger image).
Over time, Danyl Johnson has had consistent buzz, with a higher than average number of mentions. Of the remaining five, Joe McElderry has had the least amount of buzz.
I’ll make a bold prediction: I think we’ll see Joe McElderry or Lloyd Daniels go home tonight on X Factor. If I’m wrong, I’ll try again.
So after last months blog post “are you LinkedIn in London or Bebo in Belfast?” we have been thinking about other ways to use these images. With a bit of playing about we have created a time lapse map showing Twitters growth over the last 12 months. You can click right and left to go throught he months.
I think it shows quite well just how much Twitter has grown. The first jump in traffic is back in March 2009. If you look at the last few months you can see that their are some dips particularly in the Midlands and the North.
We’re thinking about doing some more of these for other sites so let us know if their are any sites you would like to see in the comments section.
Facebook’s set to go through a few changes again over the coming months, so I thought I’d detail some of the plans for anyone with a presence on the social network.
Depending on whether you have a Profile, Page or App, there are some points worth bearing in mind in order to maintain or augment some of the functionality of your activity.
1. The user interface is getting a redesign. There’s going to be a left hand column through which users can navigate their feed, events, photos, games, apps etc. This’ll take up about 25% of the screen on the left, and gives app owners the opportunity to get a shortcut permanently on a user’s homepage.
However, app and page owners will have to rethink some of their functionality. This new column will replace where users currently have their “boxes” – so you’ll no longer be able to include app functionality or content here. In addition, it means that application tabs on profiles will now be about a third narrower (instead of 760px wide, they’ll be 520px wide). Of course, this means if your app or page makes full use of the 760px wide tab at the moment, it may well need a redesign.
Canvas pages (where users make use of a full application) are unaffected.
Timescale for implementation: Late ‘09 early ‘10
2. Facebook are going to implement Open Graph API (nice name…). Any website will be able to install a Fan widget, which will let visitors “fan” the site. This means you’ll be able to have a Facebook presence without having a Page on Facebook. You’ll then be able to publish stories to fans through the widget.
Timescale for implementation: Early ‘10
3. Facebook app owners should be getting access to their users’ email addresses (previously you’ve had to message users through Facebook’s inbox). It’s unclear how you’ll be able to email users (will it be through Facebook or through your own platforms?) but this has the potential to expand a brand’s eCRM activity. As with eCRM though, you’ll need to plan a decent strategy with reasonable frequencies, timings and messaging etc.
Timescale for implementation: November ‘09 (!)
4. More analytics. The insight tool’s going to be expanded to include more activity (such as feed distribution, which shows how many people saw the social actions your page/app generated) and also be given an accesible API. This should be great as you’ll be able to pull the data from your insight tool into other areas. The potential’s big here, especially for agencies to integrate into reporting software.
Timescale for implementation: Late ‘09 early ‘10
5. This is already implemented, but Facebook pages can now publish updates to specific regions and languages. There’s now an “Everyone” button next to “Share”; click on it and you’ll be able to customise your audience.
I had a un-expected surprise last week to find that I had a new follower on twitter. That follower was non other than the TV show I’m a Celebrity. So naturally I accepted. Although once an avid fan of the show but not so much now (as I found a job and am no longer a student with time on my hands) I was keen to see what interesting things they had to tweet me. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by their twitter presence.
They appear to be a TV show using Twitter to offer genuine fan engagement. The official I’m A Celebrity…Twitter feed encourages fans to @reply for the chance to be used on the spin off show I’m A Celebrity…NOW on ITV2. It’s nice to see that I’m a celeb know their audience’s behavior in that that they will be online at the same time as watching the show and are rewarding them for this.
For all those avid fans of seeing the current z list celebs eating kangaroo anus and having to be covered in cockroaches you can show support for them using Twibbon.
I have to say there is only so many times you can see someone eat a wiggity grub without feeling the need to vomit.
This week I will continue to talk within the theme of my Swedish origin. In Sweden, millions of people each year ignore paying the TV license, the fee you pay for the public channels. Radiotjänst, the Swedish organization in charge of annually collecting these fees, have since a few years back switched to a new strategy to get TV owners to pay up. Instead of attacking all bilkers they are officially thanking everyone who is paying the fees.
This week a new campaign was launched where Radiotjänst is personally thanking each and every responsible person out there. Through uploading your photo your face gets superimposed on a film, thanking the one person of the world, who is protecting freedom of speech through sponsoring open television broadcasting. You can now see your face being praised all over the world as people reach out and celebrate you as the Hero. You can then share this video with all your friends, showing that you are a giving and responsible person:
This campaign has faced a lot of criticism. It is not very likely that it will generate a lot of new TV registrations. I also think they could have expanded of the “virallability” of the campaign. It is however a very fun way to connect people to the cause and I can think of many ways of how this could be used for more suitable brands. I really enjoyed watching myself as the protector of freedom of speech… Now my next goal is to become the UN Secretary-General.
Naturally, social media folk tend to focus on how dramatically the digital landscape has been altered by the daily emergence of new social technologies, platforms and modes of interaction.
Touchscreen handsets and operating systems revolutionised the volume and manner in which the UK uses mobile to interact with eachother, brands and the internet (usage grew 28% to 11m people last year alone).
However, this mobile boom requires infrastructure developments beyond the app store or an update in Tweet Deck or Facebook for iPhone.
i-level’s prolific Head of Emerging Platforms Oli Newton discusses in his recent article for U Talk Marketing the need for ad serving technologies to develop and standardise if brands are to reap the benefits of this dramatic increase in use and opportunity.
He also reveals his latent desire for a mobile sponsored Britney reunion in 2020.
Oli’s full article can, (and should) be read here (you could even click that little button that says ‘recommend this article’)
We’re pleased to present what we hope to be the first of many guest posts on spreadingjam.com. Mr Oli Newton (@olinewton) is the head of emerging platforms at i-level.
At the moment Wave is an undefined shell. Its core description is probably along the lines of an uber wiki based collaborative document editing tool. But that is pretty dull compared to “the next revolution in email”.
Focusing on the undefined shell though, we can picture various uses and evolutions of Wave. The problem though is that what we see now is not what will make Wave the must use, rather than the ‘must have’ (the crazy eBay prices have rationally started to fall). Like Twitter, it needs other people, applications and interfaces to help define it.
We’ve already started to see basic robots created to scour Amazon and help sell you books and DVDs, others that feed in live stock prices or tweets. The eco-system is being generated.
So for those of you who currently have it and wonder what you do with it. Don’t worry, don’t get disheartened and consign it to hype over substance, accept that we are on the cusp of something new and revel in the fact that you were there early and will be able to see it evolve and become useful. Then in 6 months or a year when it is totally different and useful, smugly tell people you were one of the first to get an invite.
Check out: http://completewaveguide.com from the First Lady of Wave Gina Trapani to really help you navigate your first attempts.
We’ve been noticing recently that every few weeks another change to Google has it showing up more social media sites in their results. We thought we should list some of the key ways that social media and search are converging.
1. Live search
Google & Bing have signed deals with Twitter to include live search results from the micro blogging platform in their results (link). This is just another sign of how Twitter’s influence is extending much further than just tweople who actively use the site to the millions of users who run Google searches every day.
2. Forums being highlighted in Google results
Forum posts related to your search are now shown to help people find real people’s opinions on a topic or brand (link). This reflects how people are using the Internet more and more to find what people discussing to get real-life tips and advice. The above screenshot shows the results for the search [getting from Rome to Florence].
3. Filtering of Google results The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that on Googles results page it now has a “show options” button on the left which allows you to filter your search down to Videos, News, Blogs or Forums (link). This allows anyone looking for information to quickly find it in the format they want, add in their time options and in seconds you can have yesterday’s blog posts about X-Factor if you so desire.
4. Blog posts
We’re not really sure what determines when this happens, but we have noticed that at the bottom of some search results it brings in results from Blog Search, see this example for a search for a “Smashing magazine”
Take all this into account along with some aspects that have been around for some time: 5. YouTube Videos appearing in search results 6. Yahoo! Answers and Wikipedia being regulars in the first page of results 7. Google maps including UGC restaurant and pub reviews
It shows how everyones comments, blogs, posts and reviews from across the social web can be quickly and easily found by virtually anyone. Just goes to show how you need to watch what you say but then so do brands if they want to truly understand their customers.
I always find it really interesting when a simple idea to take social media beyond the realms of a computer screen is hatched. Recently I came across a guy from South Africa called Sam Wilson who has created a blog, http://illscreamyourtweets.com, where he invites users to send Tweets to @ScreamUrTweets.
Once every week, Sam makes his way to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town and simply, screams your tweets to whoever is in earshot. Your tweet could go from never being read by anyone to being screamed really loudly. This could be a good way for those who regularly use twitter to tweet about the bad experiences they have with a service or product and to get it all out in the open (quite literately).
Once Sam has screamed your tweets he will then upload them into Youtube:
I wonder how he would shout a tweet if it was all written in CAPITALS…
I have always been intrigued by the brand Absolut, even before I, for the first time tasted the transparent, not very well tasting, liquid. Even though I’m not a great vodka fan, Absolut has always reigned as my favourite among liquor brands. Its clean and its simple. It has incredible branding and always great packaging. And part of my love for it might lie in the fact that we share the same Swedish origin.
Absolut has launched a bottle design called Absolut Rock, and as part of the new ‘Absolut World’ concept they have released a new campaign with the pay off “In an Absolut World you’re with the band”. On the website you get to follow how Absolut introduces music photographer Danny Clinch to the Australian band Wolfmother. Together they are documenting Wolfmother on tour and in the studio.
Both videos and photos are featured on the site, and together with the website the total impression is really nice. Also the bottle looks amazing.
However, I am missing the Social Media element. Users are not even able to leave comments. I believe that there are plenty opportunity to create an engagement around this campaign, but it seems like Absolut wasn’t willing to take it all the way.
I am willing to call it a good execution, not an Absolut one.
