Swimming around in the vast ocean of information that is social media, it's easy to feel lonely and wonder whether all the time and effort you put in is really worth it.
That's what makes all the little, real life triumphs, all the sweeter. The other night I was at a Glasgow Chamber of Commerce search engine optimisation seminar where the speaker was Brian Mathers of ICT Advisor.com - one of the world's genuine SEO gurus. Before the talk, I was chatting with a woman called Jacqueline Morrison who was looking at the list of attendees and asked if I know anyone on it. One or two, I replied.
"I only know one - Stephen Breen," she said. "That's me! How do you know me?" It turns out she has been reading my blogs on various of the Glasgow and Scottish entrepreneur groups on LinkedIn I've joined, and she said how much she enjoyed the last one Social Media - how much faster can it get?
It turns out Jacqueline runs a very interesting reusable nappy business called Nappy Makers. What on earth was someone in the nappy business doing reading my blog, which mainly concerns itself with public relations, social media and business? Well, first of all she found it interesting, which a relief, since there's no point posting any content on social media if it is poor quality and doesn't give any value to readers.
Secondly, she, like many other business people, is trying to get their heads around social media, which is why she is on LinkedIn.
This little episode has demonstrated nicely the value of putting in the time to blog, but also, the importance of being active on the social media sites where your potential clients and customers are also likely to be. By posting useful information on these influential digital platforms, not only have I raised the awareness of what Breen Media does, but I've gotten into a dialogue with people who may, at some point, want to use our services.
Later in the evening, I met another woman, Adriana Dunlay of Glasgow-based Trumpet Design, who picked my brains on how I use platforms such as Twitter.
The next morning, I received a Tweet from Adriana, her very first, saying 'Joining Twitter as a result of last night's Chamber meeting at the Corinthian. Now what do I do?'
I was able to give her a few simple steps to get started. I like it when that happens.
www.breenmedia.co.uk
Friday, 20 November 2009
Friday, 13 November 2009
Social media - how much faster can it get?
I read recently that there are something like 11,000 apps for Twitter alone. I defy even the most the Twitter-addicted geek on the planet to be up to speed on all of these.
The Twitter app explosion in many ways symbolises the breakneck speed at which social media is growing. Those of us in public relations have had to pretty much start from scratch in the past year or so and completely relearn our trade to use these new digital tools. For most PR pro’s, I suspect the social media revolution has been bewildering, scary and exhilarating – all at the same time.
How much faster can this rollercoaster ride get? Moore’s law states that computer capacity doubles roughly every two years, so there is nothing to stop the internet growing at an exponential rate to carry much more digital data at even faster speeds.
New York University Professor Clay Shirky has stated: “The moment we are living right now, this generation, represents the largest increase in expressive capability in human history.”
The question for media professionals is how can we possibly keep up if the flow of information becomes even more rapid?
I don’t have the precise answer – otherwise I’d be a billionaire – but I suspect we are going to see the emergence of some digital super-tools that will help us make sense of all this white noise that will gain market dominance. There are already lots of platforms out there like Google and Addictomatic that monitor multiple online platforms that allow us to track what’s being said about oursleves, our businesses and our clients in cyberspace.
Social media has matured from something used by kids to keep in touch with their mates to a more mainstream business tool. Right now, there are just way too many options for consumers to make a sensible choice about what digital platforms really work. (I known this runs counter to the whole self-publish, everyone can be a content creator, ethos of social media).
My sense is that in the next year or two, things are going to settle down a little and some really clever people are going to come up with solutions that will make life online a little bit easier for us all.
I could, of course, be completely wrong, but I’d welcome the thoughts of others on this.
The Twitter app explosion in many ways symbolises the breakneck speed at which social media is growing. Those of us in public relations have had to pretty much start from scratch in the past year or so and completely relearn our trade to use these new digital tools. For most PR pro’s, I suspect the social media revolution has been bewildering, scary and exhilarating – all at the same time.
How much faster can this rollercoaster ride get? Moore’s law states that computer capacity doubles roughly every two years, so there is nothing to stop the internet growing at an exponential rate to carry much more digital data at even faster speeds.
New York University Professor Clay Shirky has stated: “The moment we are living right now, this generation, represents the largest increase in expressive capability in human history.”
The question for media professionals is how can we possibly keep up if the flow of information becomes even more rapid?
I don’t have the precise answer – otherwise I’d be a billionaire – but I suspect we are going to see the emergence of some digital super-tools that will help us make sense of all this white noise that will gain market dominance. There are already lots of platforms out there like Google and Addictomatic that monitor multiple online platforms that allow us to track what’s being said about oursleves, our businesses and our clients in cyberspace.
Social media has matured from something used by kids to keep in touch with their mates to a more mainstream business tool. Right now, there are just way too many options for consumers to make a sensible choice about what digital platforms really work. (I known this runs counter to the whole self-publish, everyone can be a content creator, ethos of social media).
My sense is that in the next year or two, things are going to settle down a little and some really clever people are going to come up with solutions that will make life online a little bit easier for us all.
I could, of course, be completely wrong, but I’d welcome the thoughts of others on this.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Twitter – freedom of speech or a digital lynch mob?
The hounding of Jan Moir recently over her extremely tasteless attack on Stephen Gately’s lifestyle before he had even been buried has thrown cast a new a somewhat sinister light on Twitter.
Twitter has rightly been lauded as a censorship-busting tool which allowed the world to find out what was going on in the Iraq elections and exposed oil firm Trafigura’s outrageous attempts to gag the Guardian from reporting on parliamentary proceedings on the dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast.
Moir’s attack on Gately was a typical and nasty Daily Mail hatchet job, pandering to the worst type of Middle England bigotry. The Mail is used to orchestrating moral outrage towards whichever victim it chooses to pick on that day, and it didn’t like it one little bit when it was on the receiving end of a storm of public outcry. Thanks to a Twitter storm, the Press Complaints Commission received an unprecedented 21,000 complaints against Moir’s article and advertisers began pulling out.
Some saw this as a textbook case of digital people power and rejoiced at seeing the Mail get a hefty dose of its own moral medicine, but there’s a strong case to be made that this was nothing more than the crudest form of mob rule and censorship.
I’m sure many – perhaps most – of those who complained to the PCC – hadn’t even read the article, but were simply egged on by others on Twitter. And here’s part of the problem with Twitter: it encourages the re-tweeting of instant communication without time for careful thought.
British journalist Brendan O’Neill has coined the perfect phrase for this behaviour – a twitch-hunt. Rather than seeing the Moir Twitter storm as a triumph for people power, it is, in fact a crude example of a liberal lynch mob on the rampage in cyberspace.
It’s disturbing that a tool that is supposed to be about freedom of speech has been used by some to bludgeon those with whom they disagree. Homophobia is unpleasant, but so too is the hypocrisy of liberals who tell us they are all for freedom of speech, just as long you agree with me, otherwise I’ll shut you down.
Social media is a powerful and potentially liberating tool. Let’s hope the Moir affair isn’t a taster of things to come.
Breen Media
Twitter has rightly been lauded as a censorship-busting tool which allowed the world to find out what was going on in the Iraq elections and exposed oil firm Trafigura’s outrageous attempts to gag the Guardian from reporting on parliamentary proceedings on the dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast.
Moir’s attack on Gately was a typical and nasty Daily Mail hatchet job, pandering to the worst type of Middle England bigotry. The Mail is used to orchestrating moral outrage towards whichever victim it chooses to pick on that day, and it didn’t like it one little bit when it was on the receiving end of a storm of public outcry. Thanks to a Twitter storm, the Press Complaints Commission received an unprecedented 21,000 complaints against Moir’s article and advertisers began pulling out.
Some saw this as a textbook case of digital people power and rejoiced at seeing the Mail get a hefty dose of its own moral medicine, but there’s a strong case to be made that this was nothing more than the crudest form of mob rule and censorship.
I’m sure many – perhaps most – of those who complained to the PCC – hadn’t even read the article, but were simply egged on by others on Twitter. And here’s part of the problem with Twitter: it encourages the re-tweeting of instant communication without time for careful thought.
British journalist Brendan O’Neill has coined the perfect phrase for this behaviour – a twitch-hunt. Rather than seeing the Moir Twitter storm as a triumph for people power, it is, in fact a crude example of a liberal lynch mob on the rampage in cyberspace.
It’s disturbing that a tool that is supposed to be about freedom of speech has been used by some to bludgeon those with whom they disagree. Homophobia is unpleasant, but so too is the hypocrisy of liberals who tell us they are all for freedom of speech, just as long you agree with me, otherwise I’ll shut you down.
Social media is a powerful and potentially liberating tool. Let’s hope the Moir affair isn’t a taster of things to come.
Breen Media
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
The recession is ending - is your business ready?
Britain is ‘on the brink of recovery’ according to a report this week from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), with the FTSE 100 share index on a 12 month high.
Businesses that have been weathering the storm need to get ready right now to take full advantage of the opportunities that will come with the upturn.
Smarter companies will have used the slowdown wisely to train their staff, improve customer service, recalibrate their products and services to suit the tough conditions, and market themselves while their competitors’ bunkered in.
For those who have been frozen in the headlights, now is a great time to get a strategy in place to be ready for the recovery.
Here are a few simple things forward-looking businesses should be doing now:
Get a robust marketing strategy: you need to be revising your services, products and pricing to meet the needs of your cusomers in the next few months. What will they be looking as the economy improves? Is it different from what you are offering now? What extra value can you give to persuade them to go with you rather than a competitor?
Lock in low advertising rates: there are some great advertising deals around at the moment as newspapers and TV and radio stations have been desperate to pull in business. Take advantage of this – book long-term while the rates are low.
Look for a new office: there is plenty of empty office space around which landlords are desperate to let. If you move now, you could get a long-term rent deal at a great price.
Take your message to market: now is the time to shout about what you are doing, grab market share, and be the recognised brand when the orders start coming in. Tie in a well-planned public relations blitz with your marketing campaign to take full advantage of the opportunities which will arise.
At Breen Media, we recognise that businesses are still struggling and counting the pennies and may see PR as a luxury they can’t afford. We don’t want them to miss out on the chance to steal a march on their rivals. That’s why we’ve launched a special half-price deal for all new clients. We’re halfing our monthly retainer for the first three months, or for the first project we do for you.
To find out more, click here
Businesses that have been weathering the storm need to get ready right now to take full advantage of the opportunities that will come with the upturn.
Smarter companies will have used the slowdown wisely to train their staff, improve customer service, recalibrate their products and services to suit the tough conditions, and market themselves while their competitors’ bunkered in.
For those who have been frozen in the headlights, now is a great time to get a strategy in place to be ready for the recovery.
Here are a few simple things forward-looking businesses should be doing now:
Get a robust marketing strategy: you need to be revising your services, products and pricing to meet the needs of your cusomers in the next few months. What will they be looking as the economy improves? Is it different from what you are offering now? What extra value can you give to persuade them to go with you rather than a competitor?
Lock in low advertising rates: there are some great advertising deals around at the moment as newspapers and TV and radio stations have been desperate to pull in business. Take advantage of this – book long-term while the rates are low.
Look for a new office: there is plenty of empty office space around which landlords are desperate to let. If you move now, you could get a long-term rent deal at a great price.
Take your message to market: now is the time to shout about what you are doing, grab market share, and be the recognised brand when the orders start coming in. Tie in a well-planned public relations blitz with your marketing campaign to take full advantage of the opportunities which will arise.
At Breen Media, we recognise that businesses are still struggling and counting the pennies and may see PR as a luxury they can’t afford. We don’t want them to miss out on the chance to steal a march on their rivals. That’s why we’ve launched a special half-price deal for all new clients. We’re halfing our monthly retainer for the first three months, or for the first project we do for you.
To find out more, click here
Friday, 2 October 2009
Sun setting on hypocritical politicians
Watching Labour politicians working themselves into a froth this week about the Sun after it switched allegiance to the Tories has been hilarious.
Harriet Harman told conference she was speaking about something the Sun knew nothing about - women’s rights. Union leader Tony Woodley tore up a copy of the paper, saying it had never supported Labour values.
Newsflash to Harriet and Tony - this didn’t start on Wednesday morning! The Sun has never given a damn about women (unless they’ve got their tops off) or supported worker’s rights. It’s always been the shrill voice of selfish Thatcherism.
But you didn’t hear the Labour leadership dare point out this obvious truth all the time Tony Blair’s sleazy pact with Rupert Murdoch to win the tabloid’s support held firm. The Labour movement has had to hold its nose very tight indeed for the past decade or so to curry favour with Britain’s best-selling paper. Blair, Alastair Campbell and the rest of the New Labour leadership knew this was the equivalent of entering a pact with the devil and they were prepared to do it to win and maintain power.
Anyone doing deals with with tabloid newspapers - whether it’s opportunistic politicians or grubby individuals selling kiss-and-tell stories - is swimming in shark-infested waters. At some point or other, the shark is likely to turn round and devour them. So why make a fuss when it happens? As Neil Kinnock put it, finding out the Sun was backing the Tories was the equivalent of discovering the pope was a Catholic.
That’s why all the huffing and puffing from Harman and others just reeks of hypocrisy. What it says is that it’s OK for the Sun to be sexist and anti-union - just as long as it keeps telling its readers to vote Labour. At least Gordon Brown had the good sense - from a PR point of view - to try to play down the body blow, claiming feebly that it’s voters not newspapers than decide elections.
Murdoch is cold blooded, utterly ruthless, and he only backs winners who will look out for his business interests. It will be interesting to see what price he has extracted from David Cameron in return for backing the Tories.
Cast your mind back to when the Dirty Digger switched support to New Labour in 1997. There were strong calls for newspaper reform and privacy laws to curb the worst tabloid excesses. Blair rode into power with the Sun’s blessing and - hey presto! - it’s business as usual for the papers.
James Murdoch was recently laying into the BBC at the Edinburgh Television Festival, railing about the unfair advantage the state-funded broadcaster has over commerical operations. He makes some good points. The BBC is a bloated bureaucracy, spending money like a drunken sailor - who can forgot that it sent more than 400 people to cover the Glastonbury festival and more than 300 for T in the Park? Any private sector company that sloshed the cash around like that would quickly go out of business.
Has Murdoch senior pressurised Cameron to review the licence fee for the BBC as the price of his support? It will be interesting to see.
www.breenmedia.co.uk
Harriet Harman told conference she was speaking about something the Sun knew nothing about - women’s rights. Union leader Tony Woodley tore up a copy of the paper, saying it had never supported Labour values.
Newsflash to Harriet and Tony - this didn’t start on Wednesday morning! The Sun has never given a damn about women (unless they’ve got their tops off) or supported worker’s rights. It’s always been the shrill voice of selfish Thatcherism.
But you didn’t hear the Labour leadership dare point out this obvious truth all the time Tony Blair’s sleazy pact with Rupert Murdoch to win the tabloid’s support held firm. The Labour movement has had to hold its nose very tight indeed for the past decade or so to curry favour with Britain’s best-selling paper. Blair, Alastair Campbell and the rest of the New Labour leadership knew this was the equivalent of entering a pact with the devil and they were prepared to do it to win and maintain power.
Anyone doing deals with with tabloid newspapers - whether it’s opportunistic politicians or grubby individuals selling kiss-and-tell stories - is swimming in shark-infested waters. At some point or other, the shark is likely to turn round and devour them. So why make a fuss when it happens? As Neil Kinnock put it, finding out the Sun was backing the Tories was the equivalent of discovering the pope was a Catholic.
That’s why all the huffing and puffing from Harman and others just reeks of hypocrisy. What it says is that it’s OK for the Sun to be sexist and anti-union - just as long as it keeps telling its readers to vote Labour. At least Gordon Brown had the good sense - from a PR point of view - to try to play down the body blow, claiming feebly that it’s voters not newspapers than decide elections.
Murdoch is cold blooded, utterly ruthless, and he only backs winners who will look out for his business interests. It will be interesting to see what price he has extracted from David Cameron in return for backing the Tories.
Cast your mind back to when the Dirty Digger switched support to New Labour in 1997. There were strong calls for newspaper reform and privacy laws to curb the worst tabloid excesses. Blair rode into power with the Sun’s blessing and - hey presto! - it’s business as usual for the papers.
James Murdoch was recently laying into the BBC at the Edinburgh Television Festival, railing about the unfair advantage the state-funded broadcaster has over commerical operations. He makes some good points. The BBC is a bloated bureaucracy, spending money like a drunken sailor - who can forgot that it sent more than 400 people to cover the Glastonbury festival and more than 300 for T in the Park? Any private sector company that sloshed the cash around like that would quickly go out of business.
Has Murdoch senior pressurised Cameron to review the licence fee for the BBC as the price of his support? It will be interesting to see.
www.breenmedia.co.uk
Friday, 14 August 2009
Can Rupert Murdoch save journalism?
Rupert Murdoch has thrown a huge rock into the media pool by announcing he is planning to start charging for some online News International information.
How to make cash from internet news sites is the biggest conundrum newspapers face in the 21st century and no one has cracked it yet. Having given the shop away years ago by providing print news online for free, most commentators believe there is no way back. Why on earth would consumers used to getting their news free from any number of web sites suddenly start paying for the privilege?
I don't have a clear answer, but I do have a growing sense that as people start getting to grips with explosion of 2.0 information, there will be a marked shift towards quality. The reason for this is that amidst the diarrhoea of digital information out there, there is actually a lot of really good stuff that is worth accessing - and maybe even paying for.
Take Twitter. At first, many people simply couldn't fathom the point in receiving instant messages from thousands of complete strangers every day, much of it mind-numbing trivia. There's no doubt that none of us has the time to read all of this stuff, but used properly, Twitter can be an extraordinarily effective tool. The trick is to follow people or organisations who post information that has real value - whether it is a tech nerd keeping you up to date with the latest digital developments, someone who supports your football team who roots around the net for articles, an airport tweeting about flight delays, or your favourite restaurant alerting you if tables become available at the last minute. All of this is good stuff.
In turn, if you post useful information on Twitter, on blogs, or on social media sites, you can establish yourself as an expert, build relationships and win business.
This flight to quality that I sense is happening, could persuade some of us to pay the likes of the New York Times, the Guardian, Daily Telegraph or the FT for our news. It's a big ask, but my old boss at The Scotsman, Tim Luckhurst, who now plies his trade at the Centre for Journalism, believes that if newspapers can charge for content, then they can reinvested it in high quality journalism. He notes, quote correctly, that the legions of citizen journalists who micro-blog from the streets of Tehran about the Iranian elections are good for democracy because they defying attempts at censorship. However, amateur journalists are highly opinionated and are not trained to be critical, objective and accurate. If you want information you can trust, you need professional journalists - and charging for online content might allow struggling newspapers to continue supporting great journalism.
Love him or loathe him, Murdoch has an uncanny knack of spotting where the media market is going and jumping into that space early. If he's right, and others follow, the Dirty Digger just might turn out to be the unlikely saviour of journalism.
www.breenmedia.co.uk
How to make cash from internet news sites is the biggest conundrum newspapers face in the 21st century and no one has cracked it yet. Having given the shop away years ago by providing print news online for free, most commentators believe there is no way back. Why on earth would consumers used to getting their news free from any number of web sites suddenly start paying for the privilege?
I don't have a clear answer, but I do have a growing sense that as people start getting to grips with explosion of 2.0 information, there will be a marked shift towards quality. The reason for this is that amidst the diarrhoea of digital information out there, there is actually a lot of really good stuff that is worth accessing - and maybe even paying for.
Take Twitter. At first, many people simply couldn't fathom the point in receiving instant messages from thousands of complete strangers every day, much of it mind-numbing trivia. There's no doubt that none of us has the time to read all of this stuff, but used properly, Twitter can be an extraordinarily effective tool. The trick is to follow people or organisations who post information that has real value - whether it is a tech nerd keeping you up to date with the latest digital developments, someone who supports your football team who roots around the net for articles, an airport tweeting about flight delays, or your favourite restaurant alerting you if tables become available at the last minute. All of this is good stuff.
In turn, if you post useful information on Twitter, on blogs, or on social media sites, you can establish yourself as an expert, build relationships and win business.
This flight to quality that I sense is happening, could persuade some of us to pay the likes of the New York Times, the Guardian, Daily Telegraph or the FT for our news. It's a big ask, but my old boss at The Scotsman, Tim Luckhurst, who now plies his trade at the Centre for Journalism, believes that if newspapers can charge for content, then they can reinvested it in high quality journalism. He notes, quote correctly, that the legions of citizen journalists who micro-blog from the streets of Tehran about the Iranian elections are good for democracy because they defying attempts at censorship. However, amateur journalists are highly opinionated and are not trained to be critical, objective and accurate. If you want information you can trust, you need professional journalists - and charging for online content might allow struggling newspapers to continue supporting great journalism.
Love him or loathe him, Murdoch has an uncanny knack of spotting where the media market is going and jumping into that space early. If he's right, and others follow, the Dirty Digger just might turn out to be the unlikely saviour of journalism.
www.breenmedia.co.uk
Monday, 10 August 2009
Social Media is all grown up
If anyone working in public relations still has any doubts that social media is going to be a massive part of their job then the latest report from Marta Kagan on Digital Buzz should put them right.
It’s packed full of extraordinary figures about the remarkable growth of social networking sites on the web.
For example:
* three out of four Americans use social technology
* two thirds of the global internet population use social networks
* social sites are the fourth most popular area of online activity - ahead of personal email
* time spent on social networks is growing three times faster than overall internet growth, accounting for 10% of all internet time
* 100 million YouTube videos are viewed each day
* Twitter grew by 1382% between January and February this year
It’s bursting with compelling reasons why every PR practitioner has to include social media as part of their arsenal of communication tools. The swear words might not be to everyone’s taste, but the message is clear.
But enough from me. Why not view the slideshow here yourself.
It’s packed full of extraordinary figures about the remarkable growth of social networking sites on the web.
For example:
* three out of four Americans use social technology
* two thirds of the global internet population use social networks
* social sites are the fourth most popular area of online activity - ahead of personal email
* time spent on social networks is growing three times faster than overall internet growth, accounting for 10% of all internet time
* 100 million YouTube videos are viewed each day
* Twitter grew by 1382% between January and February this year
It’s bursting with compelling reasons why every PR practitioner has to include social media as part of their arsenal of communication tools. The swear words might not be to everyone’s taste, but the message is clear.
But enough from me. Why not view the slideshow here yourself.
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