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So if you believe the European Union really is a single
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Re-tweets at least. PeerIndex this week released
its annual list of the UK’s
140
(see what they did there) most influential tweeters and the results are
somewhat surprising. Liam
Payne, apparently, has more clout than Harry Styles
and Eleanor Calder’s
(One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson’s girlfriend) musings are seemingly more
significant than Ed
Miliband’s – despite the fact anyone who isn’t one of these
is unlikely to have ever heard of her. The list of surprising results
goes on, with, for example, controversial 2012 X Factor contestant, Rylan Clarke, ranking ahead of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
While I have no doubt that the tweets of each member of
One Direction are seen by a wide and varying audience – the idea that the
influence of a reality TV show contestant is
greater than the Chancellor of the Exchequer is slightly concerning and hard to
genuinely believe. PeerIndex’s methodology for the Top 140 focused on the
people responding to, retweeting or engaging with a certain tweeter. The
number of followers a person has is not taken into account and a retweet from a
fellow ‘influencer’ scores higher than that of an ‘average’ person. PeerIndex
has removed any corporate or brand accounts, including newspapers, parody
accounts, and journalists from the main national newspapers (although, for some
reason, Times journalist Caitlin
Moran makes it) in its assessment. Included, however,
are transatlantic Brits, à laPiers
Morgan, and will.i.am
because, apparently, he’s always on TV here so he counts. Sure.
In 2012, PeerIndex joined forces with the Independent
to compile a list of the 100 most influential Tweeters in the UK. A list that looks very different, with
Richard Branson in pole position, and Sarah Brown and Alan Carr coming in at joint
second (while Harry still made the list at number 22, Liam was nowhere to be
seen – in case you’re interested). This
research used a different methodology and, perhaps crucially, included a
five-person expert panel to verify the results PeerIndex provided.
PeerIndex, and other tools like it, are often used by
organisations and individuals to measure their social media presence. Where traditionally the reach of a company’s
message could be calculated through column inches and press cuttings, in
today’s fast paced and social world it’s a very different story. It would appear that measuring social media
influence is a highly complex process with the results varying dependent
on the methodology used. While the
results of this year’s Top 140 may be slightly skewed given PeerIndex’s
headline-serving methodology, it’s likely that consensus on the best way to
measure social media will need to be reached at some point. Without it, it will be each to their own and
that doesn’t hold much value in the long run.
The new
iPad was announced this week, its biggest claim to fame being that it
weighs less than previous versions. Wow,
Apple, I am blown away, you have excelled.
I don’t doubt that a lighter iPad will be a benefit – easier to carry in
your handbag or to hold with one hand while reading the news – but it isn’t really
groundbreaking from an end user point of view.
If anything, it reminds me of discussing who had the smallest mobile phone
in the school cafeteria, back when the Nokia
3310 was in vogue.
When the iPhone
first came out it truly was a ‘game changer.’ As more people got one, more people couldn’t
live without one. I waited for a
torturous 24
month contract to run its course, with a broken Nokia mobile – that had
claimed to be the Nokia equivalent of an iPhone at the time – before I finally
got my iPhone 4S, and then I wanted to wrap it up in cotton wool. I needed to double-bag, which meant not only buying
a robust phone case, but insurance too. Although
that didn’t stop me leaving it in a taxi one night, it does show what ‘disrupting
the market’ really means.
We’re over three
years down the line from that broken Nokia and the mobile scene is quite
different. Most people now own a smartphone
– even my Mum, albeit without any data allowance – in some cases people own
two, with an iPad for good measure. Back
then the differentiator was whether you had a smartphone or not, now the battle
is between the smartphones, which is a far less exciting duel. Let’s face it, how impressive is it really
that your iPad is lighter than mine?
Recent updates have
failed to set any of the smartphones apart as the iPhone did when it entered
the market. Siri, for example, although quirky
and at times funny, isn’t really practical when you’re walking down a London
street with a bus hurtling by. Let alone
the fact that it still can’t decipher my Essex accent – I said Matt, not map. So what’s the next real innovation that’s
going to raise the bar?
Could it be Phonebloks? A lego-style build your own phone, that
allows you to repair and upgrade parts, customise so it better fits your
lifestyle, but keep the same core device.
A phone that will deliver familiarity, sustainability, functionality and
even innovation – the near on a million Thunderclap supporters seem to think
so!
When it boils down
to it, the mark of real industry ‘disruption’ is when the end user doesn’t see
it coming. So, just in case it’s around
the corner and while we’re in the grips of one-upmanship based on weight, I’ll
just stick with what I know. What I know
is a shiny new iPhone 5S with 4G and 32GB capacity – I wonder if I got up-sold?
This
week I was lucky enough to head to Barcelona, along with our client Verne Global
and our US partner agency Connect 2 Communications, to pick up our
prestigious ‘Comms Team of the Year’ Stevie Award.
Here I am together with
Lisa Rhodes, VP of corporate strategy and market development at Verne Global
(left), and Richard Williams, president of Connect 2 Communications, showing
off our silverware.
Held
in the achingly cool W Hotel, the awards ceremony was a very grand affair, and
we did our best to make the most of the facilities.
Are you one of those people who watch
television with your laptop on your knees, smartphone in your right hand and
tablet in the left one?
A recent survey,
conducted by Mediametrie with Mesagraph, reveals a rising phenomenon in France:
‘social television’.
This emerging trend involves commenting on TV shows on social media, blogs or
directly on the TV channel’s website while watching it live on TV. In France,
about 20 percent of internet users are already active in posting online comments
about TV programmes in this very way. Predictably enough, this multiscreen user
experience is most prevalent among 15 to 24 year old young adults, with 31
percent admitting to the practice.
The reasons for getting involved in social
television often vary - indeed, 70 percent of respondents said they did so with
the aim of sharing their opinion, 50 percent want to share the TV programmes they like and 30
percent are looking for further information on the show they’re posting about. Of course, some programmes ignite more
conversation on the web than others, such as sports, entertainment and politics
as it provides viewers with the opportunity to support their favourite
candidate and teams, or be more engaged in the debate.
Brands and channels are also playing an
important part in making television social, such as producers who create
dedicated hashtags for their TV shows, or presenters who call for viewers to comment
throughout the programme. Those digital conversations enable channels to get a
live feedback from viewers, to know more about them and to catch their
attention. When you watch television while posting to social media, you get
more involved in the programme than you would if you were just idly watching
it. Those posts reinforce your concentration on the content instead of
distracting you. And sometimes, even if you think the TV show is very bad, you might
prefer to keep watching it and post comments on Twitter or Facebook, rather
than zapping and looking for a better programme, as I sometimes do!
While social media can represent a real
opportunity for brands and channels, it can also have unfortunate consequences.
We’ve recently seen an example of this in
France with a new access prime time talk-show,
launched on television at the beginning of September. The audience has been
very low, the presenter has been subjected to very violent
and intense criticism, and the programme might be dropped
from the channel’s schedule. As long as the “haters” aren’t writing anything
particularly insulting or libelous, there isn’t much you can do – apart from
keeping silent or better, coming up with a social media strategy to very
carefully answer them. This is the freedom of speech law being played out live on
the internet and it just shows how not pleasing an audience or correctly engaging
them can lead to the hasty extinction of a TV programme – after all, everything
spreads like wildfire on the web.
Very
soon, I’ll heading back home to Edinburgh and I’ll have the great honour of
becoming Fiona May Rush. Yes, that will be my married name. I
thought spelling Halkerston for 28 years was a pain, but my new name will bring
a whole load more amusement by being a full grammatical sentence. Good.
Aside
from this realisation, planning our wedding has actually been a lot of
fun. However, conversations with family and friends have made me realise
how different and how much easier this process has become with the help of
apps. There are now endless articles in bridal magazines, but also in
tech publications, recommending the top
ten wedding planning apps, helping you count down, organise, budget and
brainstorm for the big day.
While
everyone who knows me will tell you that I’m pretty glued to my iPhone and
iPad, I was a little hesitant at first. I started out fairly slowly,
downloading a countdown
app as soon as the date was set and using Pinterest to create what traditionally
would have been a scrap book. By sharing this page with my bridesmaids,
we were able to quickly get an idea for what all the girls liked or would hands
down refuse to wear. The result? Bridesmaid dresses bought on first
shopping trip within about two hours.
All
my friends who are already married said that table planning was the biggest
nightmare, with many designing a big cardboard plan with post its for each
guest that could be moved and reorganised as they went along. Our
solution was Easypinz – you can drag and
drop guests onto tables and move them around effortlessly. The whole
process took around an hour, which was a lot better than some of the horror
stories we’d heard of entire weekends wasted.
While
most elements of our wedding are set to be rather traditional, I’m really
pleased that our planning was made so easy with the help apps. Never has
the expression “There’s an app for that” felt more relevant or proved more
useful and given that my husband to be
and I are often in different countries, it’s meant that we don’t have to waste
all of our time when he’s home going over wedmin (much
to his relief!).
The most expensive video game of all time, Grand Theft Auto V, has
today been released, signalling the end of social lives across the globe. GTA V, which reportedly cost its developer Rockstar around £170 million to make and market, saw
a flurry of fans queuing to grab their copies at special events late last
night.
Its release got off to a shaky start however, with Amazon accidentally shipping copies of the much anticipated game to customers ahead
of today’s official release date – oops!
This undoubtedly sparked outrage among avid GTA fans that had patiently
waited to get their hands on the latest copy.
An investigation by Rockstar into the early sales is currently underway.
What I found fascinating is
the preparation that went into GTA V’s release from the fans themselves, who are
most likely immersed in game play as I write this. A recent online poll by gaming site IGN.com revealed that 46 percent of
its readers had booked holiday on the release day, while 19 percent planned to phone
into work unwell. I even stumbled across
a post on GTA forums discussing what snacks people had planned to bring when they collected
their game last night – not surprisingly, energy fuelled food and drink were a
popular choice, perhaps for the long night of gaming ahead.
So, what can we expect over the coming months? Well, with 25 million copies due to be sold
in the first year, social lives will undoubtedly be consumed by a virtual world
and disconnected from the realms of reality.
Let’s just hope that Rockstar is prepared for any potential ‘glitches’
or ‘downtime’ – although that might not be such a bad thing.
Apple’s
much anticipated – unexpected, yet expected – product launch was finally upon
us yesterday evening. With a contract upgrade due any day now, I for one was
waiting with bated breath to see what the fruity tech giant would have in
store. Friends swear by their Samsung handsets, but being the hardcore fanboy
that I am, I wanted to stick with an Apple device despite being increasingly
disillusioned with dull version updates. As such, I considered this Apple’s
last chance to win me over.
There
were rumours of a bigger screen, wireless charging, NFC, a 13 mega-pixel camera
and other wondrous concepts. Yes, it’s true that the likes of Samsung are
already touting most of these features and Apple is merely playing catch up,
but that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. As long as Apple jumped on the
proverbial bandwagon and made it cool, that was OK by me.
So
what did we get? First up, it was announced that there will be two new iPhone
models, which was different, promising and presented a shift from the traditional
pattern. But after some new colours, a fingerprint
sensor, some well-timed comedy from Tim Cook and a marginally improved battery,
that was it. And this pretty much sums
up how I felt at the end of the conference (or indeed the live blog that I was
anxiously scrolling through) last night.
This
launch was supposed to signal a new beginning for Apple, it’s last stand
against rising challengers such as Samsung
that are, quite frankly, edging them out of the ‘cool’ market with features
that people actually care about – screen size, diversity, camera quality and
user interface. In my opinion, it seems that with this launch, Apple has tried
too hard to appeal to new markets – namely China – with its phone of many
colours. In doing so, it sadly failed to listen to what its established base
really wanted – admittedly, an Apple-branded Samsung Galaxy S4.
Hopefully,
the iPhone 6 will see Apple take a bit more of a risk and shake things up from
both a design and aesthetic perspective, and THAT will really be its last
chance for me. Besides – and forgive me if my frustration is showing – everyone
knows that the speed-bump ‘S’ launches don’t matter anyway.
No one can have
failed to notice that wearable technology is being hyped as the new, new thing
and with this week’s announcement of its Galaxy
Gear smart watch, Samsung has added further fuel to the fire.
With the hype
comes the customary industry clamour to jump on the wearable technology
bandwagon but so far there’s been little beyond talk of Google Glass and
interactive watches; innovative in their own right, but hardly the dawning
of a new era.
Back in the real
world, it is early days for mainstream wearable technology. In
spite of the huge levels of media interest and feeling that Google Glass has
been around for ages (it was first mooted more than two years ago), you still
can’t buy it. Admittedly, Google Glass is currently being tested by a
select number of early adopters and developers (people dubbed Glass Explorers)
who each paid $1500 to get their hands on test versions of the product but the
general launch isn’t expected to be until next
year.
In true hyped
technology fashion, head worn displays are nothing new; they’ve been used in a
wide range of specialist areas from training to the military for a couple of
decades. A quick Google search for ‘optical head mounted displays’ will
show just how many are out
there.
So what else
falls into the wearable technology category to justify all this
excitement? Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of health and fitness
related stuff such as the smart
tooth that can monitor what you are eating and then make recommendations on
ways to improve your health; the Airwaves pollution
mask that shares information on pollution levels and advises people on
which areas to avoid; and the Sensoria
Sock that is designed to help reduce foot injuries by monitoring running
style. But, by far the most interesting has to be the Intimacy 2.0 smart
dress, a dress that apparently becomes transparent when the wearer is
aroused. This is a product that’s been around for a couple of years (launched
in 2011) and was clearly ahead of its time.
What happened to
the Intimacy 1.0 I’m not sure, presumably it contained some bugs that have been
ironed out in the latest version but even with version 2.0 I’m not sure I’d
recommend anyone trusting their dignity to wearable technology just yet.
It seems to me that this is a high risk product, fraught with potential calamities
but maybe that is part of the appeal to some. It certainly adds a new
dimension to the need for adequate virus protection.
As
an avid fan of the small screen, I like to be in the know about the latest and
greatest shows on TV. True, I was somewhat late to the party in catching
on to Homeland, Downton and House – but who’s judging? Contrary to form
though, I appear to be one step ahead, this week discovering a show – ‘Blackout’
– that is yet to be broadcast and no-one in the JK office had heard
about.
Now
why, you might ask, am I writing about a new Channel 4 show on a tech PR blog?
Well, my cynical friends, docudrama ‘Blackout’ looks at the after effects
of a cyber-attack on the UK national grid. This programme has it all –
drama, chaos, heartache – and has all the makings of a small screen replication
of Die Hard 4.0. Bruce
Willis it may not be, but it still sounds amazing.
Over
the past few years, numerous stories have hit the headlines highlighting the
real and very present threat of cyber-attacks. The discovery of Stuxnet
and Flame viruses and the devastating impact these could have on critical
infrastructure if poor security practices were in place, acted as eye
openers for the industry. The threat isn’t just to our digital data any
more, it’s now so sophisticated that it can impact the physical world as well
and that’s something the industry needs to take note of.
The
creation of this one off programme is sure to highlight this and I hope will
have the positive effect of making society and industry more aware of the
dangers of cyber-threats out there. In the meantime, make sure you set
your timers for what is sure to be an epic programme. I know I have!
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