Author Archive

Twitter quitters

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Shock news from the tabloids this week as Jordan (Katie Price) announced that she is on the verge of leaving Twitter. This, after Lily Allen, Miley Cyrus and others have abandoned the site, casts fresh questions as to whether the site has the power to maintain its popularity after a lot of recent media hype. In fairness, a lot of the buzz around Twitter has has been driven by celebrity users looking to use the site as a way of building their own personal profiles, so why the backlash now from some of its most famous ex- fans?

1. Celebs on Twitter are unfiltered
Before media interviews, our stars are prepped and primped by agents, publicists and PRs. Without that guidance, and with the ability to publish their thoughts instantly, ego fuelled celebs can lash out at their management, the media each other, and even fans. In turn, the tabloid media love these outbursts and publish stories portraying the rich and famous as spoilt brats throwing their toys out of the pram.

2. Fans on Twitter are unfiltered
Few people have access to the email addresses or phone numbers of Hollywood’s A-List, or even the UK’s C-list! However, through Twitter getting in touch with Jonathan Ross or Russel Brand and giving them a piece of your mind is (as one popular tweeter would say) simples. And so the rise of the haters… Jessica Simpson has them, Bow Wow has them, and they are the reason Jordan cites for her considering leaving the site.

3. Celebrities, like brands, need to know when to listen and apologise, and when to ignore
Principle 1 of social media: Anyone can publish their opinion on anything whenever they chose to do so. Some of these opinions will be valid and constructive criticism, some will be nonsense. Some will be heard by millions, others will be read by six or seven people.

Celebrities can make Twitter work for them by being aware of this fact, and adapting their behaviour accordingly, choosing one of two approaches for their account.

Broadcast – simply update your fans on what you’re doing, paying very little attention to anyone who isn’t as famous as you, ignore @mentions and limit your followers to under 200. This will keep you protected from reality and oblivious to anyone who doesn’t like you or your work, allowing you a pain free Twitter experience. Role models: Oprah, Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake

Engage – actively seek fan involvement, give them sneak previews, behind the scenes photos and respond to their comments and questions. This will enable you to grow a small army of die hard fans who feel like they have a real connection with you, and wil probably buy more of your stuff. Role models – Imogen Heap, Karl Rove (oddly), Stephen Colbert, Jonathan Ross - special mention to Wyclef Jean who has in recent days turned his Twitter feed into a huge fundraising effort for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Tags: celebrity, celebs, jordan, katie price, rants, twitter
Posted in Microblogging | 2 Comments »

Social media and second chances

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but the emergence of social media, and brands and consumers engaging in online dialogue is challenging this turn of phrase for a number of simple reasons.

1. People want to engage with brands online

In a recent story by eMarketer, over half of social networking users have become a fan or follower of a brand online. In addition, it seems that on average, users are more to show the love towards brands rather than unleash streams of negativity. “52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 46% had said something good about a brand or company on a social networking Website—double the percentage who had said something negative (23%).” Users are looking for and connecting with their favourite brands, and will interact with them through the same sites as the ones they use to chat with friends and family members. I follow my brother on Twitter, but I also follow LoveFilm; the relationship is very different, but the medium and the way the conversation takes place is the same. Extending this comparison, we’re far more likely to give a second chance to a brand that’s engaging with social media than a silent faceless corporation

2. Social media is always evolving

Every week, a new online community or platform is launched which may provide a channel for brands and consumers to interact. While the universal principles of new marketing (transparency, dialogue) will always apply, some of the more nuanced rules and practices come over a period of time as users get to grips with what’s the right and wrong way to use a given site or community. Even taking one particular medium – like message boards or forums – you’ll find a whole subset of practices for any given group of users. This disparity of rules has prompted some to go even further and assert that “there are no rules”

3. The Internet is the natural habitat for second chances

What do the following have in common: Dell, Wispa, MC Hammer, Woolworths? They’ve all made a comeback using the web. Most notably Dell’s transformation from the brand that could do no right, into one of the most switched on and consumer friendly companies is constantly held up as an example for social media marketers worldwide. Initiatives like Ideastorm say to the user “We’re not perfect, we make mistakes, but we’re listening to you”. The same could be said for Starbucks and its recent My Starbucks Idea community, “We know you’ve got ideas” says the site, so let us know what you think.

With this in mind, today, we’re excited to be working with Habitat to relaunch the @HabitatUK twitter feed. The team there are keen to listen and learn more from the engaging with the community in the future, so we’re sharing our experience of what works well on Twitter, as well as responding to the thoughts and questions of followers. We believe it’s better to go for a second chance than to simply avoid social media altogether, so it would be great to hear your comments.

Tags: dell, habitat, second chances, social media, twitter, wispa, woolworths
Posted in Client News | 1 Comment »

Shiny Red and Simply Media team up

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Over the last few months we have found ourselves spending quite a lot of time at the Old Street offices of online video specialists Simply Media. We chose to start working with them because of their unrivalled knowledge of online video, and as time has gone by we have been blown away by their creativity and ability to deliver on even the tightest deadlines.

So much so that we are very proud to announce a new partnership between the two companies. From here on in Simply will be Shiny Red’s chosen supplier of shot-for-web videos, and will provide expertise and advice both to Shiny Red and its parent company The Red Consultancy.

Shiny Red MD Helen told PR Week this week “This is a partnership between two web innovators who understand that engaging video content is a high-impact, low-cost way to reach people online. Shiny Red has led the way in using web video in PR, and the audience for it is growing all the time.”

I personally believe that the way in which video can travel between websites, blogs and social networking sites makes it one of the most potent social media tools. I expect we will be spending even more time in Old Street in the coming months and years.

Tags: Old street London, online video, online video pr, shiny red, simply media, The Red Consultancy
Posted in General, Print | No Comments »

McDonald’s goes interactive at Piccadilly Circus

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

The Shiny Red team has recently had a lot of fun supporting the re-launch of the McDonald’s sign at iconic London landmark, Piccadilly Circus.

The new sign is a brand new interactive concept, where people can take pictures of themselves interacting with fun images such as a bowler hat, an umbrella or a bouquet of flowers, and it will also feature seasonal signs to commemorate special occasions such as Father’s Day, Halloween, and major sporting events.

You can admire the Shiny Red team’s pictures on Flickr, watch a video of the sign on YouTube or alternatively become a fan of McDonald’s Piccadilly Circus on Facebook and add your photos and videos!

An estimated 1.1m people pass under the Piccadilly lights every week, so we hope to see more people sharing their snaps online.

Tags: Interactive Advertising, Interactive Billboard, McDonald's Piccadilly Circus
Posted in Client News | No Comments »

Get Social

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

The sun is shining and spring is definitely in the air in the Shiny Red offices. This brings a host of new get-togethers in and around London for all you networking types.

Facebook Developer Garage ““ This event returns on the 8^th of April with a variety of speakers to giving advice on structuring your Facebook apps to maximise monetisation. Free beer and pizza as per usual, as well as some great speakers and networking opportunities.

Location: Sun Microsystems, King William St, London

Cost: £5 early bird tickets

Aperitweat ““ The Aperitweat gang are back with a bang on April 15^th as they introduce an “˜aperitivo’ night which will revolve around Twitter with free Italian food and the chance to meet lots of new Tweeple.

Location: Al Volo, Hanbury Street, London

Cost: Free!

Shoreditch Twit ““ There’s the opportunity to go to two social networking events on the same night with the return of the Shoreditch Twit. Organised by Shiny Red’s very own Lewis Webb, this casual meet-up is for users of Twitter to meet up over a casual few drinks. If you’re fretting over which event to attend on April 15^th, don’t worry as you can begin the evening at Al Volo then head to The Big Chill bar.

Location: The Big Chill, Dray Walk, London

Cost: Free!

Open Soho 6 ““ This informal meet-up for “talented entrepreneurs working in the tech and media industries” returns on April 16^th. With a third of the tickets already sold more than a fortnight before the event, grab your tickets quick!

Location: Kettners, 29 Romilly St, London

Cost: £5.50

Social Media Camp ““ This event about, unsurprisingly, social media will be held on Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th April. With the next round of registration on 6^th April, make sure you get the tickets everyone is clamouring after!

Location: Wallacespace St Pancras, London

Cost: Free!

Tags: London, networking events, social media
Posted in Events and Conferences | No Comments »

Old Media over-eager in times of micropublishing

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

We’ve noticed a couple of major news sources this week engaging in the questionable activity of announcing a celebrity’s death while they’re still alive.

OK! has published its “˜Jade Goody Official Tribute Issue 1981-2009′ this week, following up on the success of their Jade Goody Official Wedding Issues. These three editions were some of the biggest selling issues to date, so in this respect, it is entirely understandable that they would publish another “Jade special”- what is confusing is that they decided to do so before the reality TV star’s death.

Even more surprising was Time Out New York’s decision to publish the article “˜RIP Natasha Richardson 1963-2009′ on March 17th. The actress is currently critically ill in hospital, surrounded by her family. Time Out commenters were not impressed by this insensitive inaccuracy, with one saying, “Scoring the scoop is not worth the pain and suffering of her family and loved ones!”

This comment, while a little dramatic, strikes to the heart of the issue; these publications are desperate to spread the news before it has hit Facebook, Twitter and other social media routes- and in these cases, before the news has even happened. We’ve become used to reading articles in traditional media that state Twitter or Facebook updates as their sources, and now it seems they’ve become a little over eager to break the story themselves.

My question is this: Since it is impossible for these publications to match Twitter in terms of speed of publishing, shouldn’t they focus on what they can provide that Twitter can’t? If they aim for accuracy and authority rather than speed, surely there’s room for both?

Posted in General | No Comments »

Ten reasons why Brits love Twitter – it is all about moaning

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

So it is official, Brits absolutely love the micro blogging (no I don’t know what that means either) service Twitter. According to online trend watchers Hitwise UK Internet traffic to Twitter has increased 10-fold over past last 12 months.
As techy gospel UK TechCrunch notes

UK Internet traffic to the website has increased by a staggering 974% over this period. Hitwise also admits that Twitter is probably even more popular than its numbers imply, as Hitwise is only measuring traffic to the main Twitter website, not access via mobile (it’s big on the iPhone, I can tell you) or third party applications like Twitterrific and Tweetdeck.

So why is this? It is obvious why Twitter is growing on the other side of The Pond

1 The Yanks invented it 2 Culturally Americans are not afraid of sharing their plans, achievements and disappointments. 3 They have just had their May 1st 1997 ““ a one time moment of political optimism which is made for sharing over 140 charactars.

But why then do us Brits love it so much? Well here are the results of our scientific survey of an office full of Twitter devotees

1 We did kind of invent it – Except it was called text messaging and was used on mobiles and you only shared with one person. The American never got texting the way we did so maybe Twitter is their text alternative.

2 As a nation we aren’t that demonstrative ““ Stiff upper lips and all that. One of the reasons why blogging isn’t as big over here is that we really don’t have that much to say. 140 charactars give us more than enough words to express ourselves.

3 Moaning about the weather – Our national pastime and with Twitter we can talk about our favourite topic with a large group of people instantly. Brilliant!

4 Celeb stalking ““ Ok, so I might not be too bothered about what Philip Schofield has for breakfast, but Brits do love to find out about their lives of their favourite celebs. Interesting to note that Stephen Fry now has more Twitter followers than either of the heavyweight Yanks Scoble or Calacanis.

5 Public transport ““ In British cities this is obviously completely shit, so what better way to let the entire world know that you are few minutes late because you have ducked into Starbucks are waiting for the non existent bus

6 We love mobiles ““ And those all you can eat data tariffs mean that we can happily let the world know our every move without having to worry too much about the cost

7 Queuing ““ Well we are used to be being a little patient, so Twitter’s consistent down time doesn’t annoy us as much as it would say the Italians.

8 No ads – Yep it is almost a public services, a bit like the BBC. We are used to that

9 Flirting ““ We perfected the art of the flirty text years ago. Twitter enables us to take that coy but complimentary comment to another level.

10 We are too busy to blog ““ Allright so our economy might be going down the toilet but most of us are still wedded to that old Brit work ethic. So while we might not have the time to blog we can def find just enough time to tweet

Tags: jason calacanis, micro blogging, robert Scoble, stephen fry, twitter
Posted in Microblogging | No Comments »

My Social Media Highlight of 2008

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

I have been thinking what my social media highlight has been over 2008 and I realised that this is a tough job. There so many highlights to choose from so I have put them into the following categories:

Creative Campaign: Nike’s Paul chasing. Great use of interesting online content that keeps you returning to the site, supplemented with offline activity such as advertising.

Social Media Tool: I don’t think that anyone could have missed the rise of Twitter throughout 2008

Social Media Story: Comments from Max Gogarty’s travel blog in the Guardian - Also topped as Shiny Red’s most red story of 2008, I can’t be alone

Event: Fresh in my mind is last night’s Twinterval. It was refreshing to see so many like-minded people and also meet people that I have been tweeting at for a while but have never met

Campaign that I have worked on: This has been a tough one, but for the amount of time the video made me giggle the winner has to be Yell’s Party Planner campaign

Video: I was impressed by EA’s reaction to a glitch in their Tiger Woods game

What is your social media highlight of 2008?

Posted in General, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »

Are you prepared to save Tango?

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Brtivic have made a great effort in fighting their declining sales with an upbeat integrated marketing campaign which portrays Tango as a British institution and asks the public to get behind the brand.

For the campaign they have rolled out some amusing but captivating videos ““ here’s my favourite:

Their website, Save Tango is a great resources for the fans of this campaign. It holds content for you to do your own offline PR ““ you can download and print off stickers, stencils and letters to lobby shops to bring back Tango. The website also includes games, chances to sign a petition and watch vintage adverts.

No doubt inspired by the award winning ‘Bring back the Wispa!’ campaign, this strategy of saving or reviving a traditional brand through new media has a precedent of success. The fan page already has 343 members and has been running for two weeks.

Posted in New Media, Video | 1 Comment »