Twitter's new business model: much like YouTube's existing one
Posted by Mark Pack at Tue, 13/04/2010 - 10:57am in Social media
The news is out today that Twitter is going to start placing adverts at the top of search results. Although Twitter's write-up is full of phrases such as "we've resisted introducing a traditional Web advertising model" and how their approach is "non-traditional" it actually bears a striking resemblance to YouTube's use of 'promoted videos':
Who is influential on Twitter?
Posted by Mark Pack at Fri, 26/03/2010 - 10:38am in Social media
A new academic study has plenty of important and useful findings, but none more so than the conclusion:
We found that influence is not gained spontaneously or accidentally, but through concerted effort. In order to gain and maintain influence, users need to keep great personal involvement.
Twitter solves the case of Duncan Bannatyne and the missing dress
Posted by Mark Pack at Mon, 15/03/2010 - 11:05am in Social media
It is usually companies getting it wrong on Twitter that makes the news, but over the weekend there was an excellent example of a member of staff using Twitter to sort a problem, keep a vocal customer happy and improve the reputation of the firm.
Entrepreneur and TV star Duncan Bannatyne tweeted that his wife had left a dress on a Virgin train by mistake:
Mrs Bannatyne has just arrived, she left her dress on the 8.47 Virgin train from Milton Keynes to Euston Big reward if found
Twitter etc and the election: Is it worth the risk?
Posted by Mark Pack at Wed, 10/02/2010 - 6:09pm in Internet, Political commentary
That's the headline on a BBC report today, which also features myself:
Mark Pack believes the internet will spell the end of indentikit candidates, all repeating the same election message crafted for them by party HQ.
"It will encourage individuality and creativity," he says.
He even argues that round-the-clock scrutiny by camera-phone wielding voters is a good thing for aspiring politicians: "In a less politically divided age, the personal attributes of a candidate are increasingly important."
Google Buzz: what is the implication for PR and journalists?
Posted by Mark Pack at Wed, 10/02/2010 - 11:03am in Social media
Google has just launched a new social networking service and unsurprisingly the blogs are, ahem, buzzing with discussion. If you've not yet seen it yourself, this video is an excellent quick introduction:
Google and Twitter trends come to the UK
Posted by Mark Pack at Wed, 27/01/2010 - 10:19am in Internet, Social media
For a long time both Google and Twitter have provided information on the currently hot terms - those words people are using to search (Google) or in tweets (Twitter). The data has been global totals, which in practice means the data tells you what is currently hot with Americans, with the rest of the world only getting the occasional look in.
Both have however recently added geographic options.
More is not always better: how many Twitter followers do you want?
Posted by Mark Pack at Thu, 14/01/2010 - 10:37am in Corporate commentary, Social media
Tempting though it may be, especially when it comes to chocolate, more is not always better. Driven in part by a desire by some to emulate the sort of "opportunities to see" and "reach" calculations common in more traditional PR and marketing work, it is common to see people judge social media activities by the "more equals better" formula.
What do Twitter's top trends of 2009 tell us?
Posted by Mark Pack at Sat, 19/12/2009 - 2:17pm in Internet, Social media
There are some useful lessons to learn from Twitter's round-up of the top trending terms in people's tweets during 2009 (click on image for large version):
What are the lessons to learn from these trends?
Talk Talk and the power of Twitter
Posted by Nicole Martin at Wed, 25/11/2009 - 10:57am in Internet, Social media
The power of Twitter - or maybe Stephen Fry - has been proven once again, this time by Talk Talk.
The internet service provider couldn't believe its luck when Fry, a renowned technophile, threw its weight behind its Don't Disconnect Us petition, which calls on the Government to ditch its plans to cut the internet connections of persistent illegal downloaders.
What drives traffic to news websites?
Posted by Mark Pack at Mon, 09/11/2009 - 11:49am in Internet
The Newspaper Marketing Agency's latest (September) figures (PowerPoint slides) for the sources of web traffic to newspaper websites paint a useful picture of which social media sites really matter - and which don't.
The top ten domains that referred UK traffic to newspapers during the month were:
