This way to Brazen World

Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

HOW SOCIABLE IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Victoria is… starting to think in Facebook statuses.

Seriously, I actually have a ‘status dialogue’ going in my head as I walk to Brazen every morning.

Diagnosis? Socialmediaitis.

Yes, the personality disorder of the noughties and teenies. A disease that prevents the afflicted from putting down their iPhone, BlackBerry or Nexus Social for a second for fear of missing some crucial tweet or status update.

Social media sites have been around for years and continue to grow at an astonishing rate. This means ta-ra tangible RSVPs. RIP Dear John letters. Now we click ‘Not attending’ on Facebook and change our ‘relationship status’ to single if we’re fed up of our current beau (or belle). They’ll soon get the message. And if they don’t, a gentle de-friend will do the trick.

No wonder we are addicted. Social media is a marvelous mask to hide us from awkward social situations.

Of course it is much more than that too - an amazing platform for sharing information, a great way to communicate and, importantly to me, a great PR tool. It pushes us to break down our creative barriers and provides us with new channels to reach target audiences.

But, our beloved digital natives should beware: talking will never go out of fashion and is great for relationship building. And you never know, you might need it for a job interview one day, providing the twinterview doesn’t progress that far. And maybe you’ll get married, that’s more than clicking ‘married’ on Facebook… it’s an actual thing.

Victoria is… wondering how to cut my blog down to 140 characters so I can tweet it. #theend

By Victoria Barker, Senior Account Director

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MICRO-NOT-SO-SOFT HAS DECLARED WAR

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Move aside Pepsi VS Coco cola, Cadbury VS Nestle..step into the ring - Bing..VS..er.. Google?

Microsoft’s latest offering, the recently launched Bing search engine, is setting out to steal a share of Google’s market.

They reckon that they can bring a new approach to Internet search by providing a richer, easier, and more organised search experience. This, for example, means that Bing will integrate data from consumer reviews when a search brings up a restaurant..you know, sort the KFCs from the Texas Fried Chicken shops.

Also, you can ditch the reams of rubbish..say you search a term such as “Facebook” it just returns one result - Facebook.com, which I think is pretty helpful.

The big question is though – will we ever really be ‘binging it’? When we need a quick answer will we not quickly Google it? Personally, I can’t see this happening. But, it’s got me thinking…

Thinking about just how much web addresses have actually integrated into our vocab. And I don’t mean when we are deep in digital conversation - just everyday. The amount of people who rush to the bus stop and splutter: ‘Bloody hell, that was a bit lastminute.com’ or glance perplexed across a room muttering:’confused.com’. And then there’s the really weird people who just add a ‘dot com’ to anything - ‘I’m really tired.com’ - bizarre.

I mean, there’s always been the brand names that have slipped into our language - Housewife: “I’m going to do a spot of hoovering, I would wear my marigolds but they are sellotaped together.” But now it’s all gone digital. Perhaps this really is the new way to measure website success and domination?

Maybe next time I’m doing a little research into the latest media phenomenon or consumer PR strategy for Brazen, I’ll be ‘Binging it’.

By Katie Medd, Account Executive

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THE REVOLVING REVOLUTION

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Can you believe it, online networking is supposedly more popular than email!

It seems slowly but surely, the Facebook phenomenon is completely revolutionising the way we communicate. Even yesterday I wrote ‘status update – would anyone like a coffee?’ on an A4 piece of paper whilst walking around the Brazen office with it held above my head.

So…aren’t we a really clever generation for designing this revolutionary communication format!? Well…not really.

Delving deeper into a social network’s fundamental basics, lets take the world’s most popular networking site Facebook as an example, is it revolutionary or are we all riding the reinvented wheel?

The Facebook profile - an online ego extension providing a first hand insight into one’s own personal lifestyle. How about we call this a website dedicated to me?

Facebook messaging – a communication technique where users are able to compose and send messages in the form of…an electronic…envelope…mail thingy. Hang on a minute, did I just hear that online networking is now more popular than email?

Facebook wall posts – the same principle as the revolutionary Facebook messaging but without the privacy of course.

Facebook chat – a real time communication application that allows two-way communication between contacts. Also known as MSN Messenger which was first established when I was a small boy.

Facebook video…Youtube!

Facebook photo albums…go see my mum, she’s got hundreds of photos complete with handwritten tags highlighting when and where the photo was taken and who is pictured.

The list goes on and on. So is there anything revolutionary about Facebook or social networks?

Well maybe, status updates appear to be an ever-growing trend. We all do it, log into Facebook and immediately scroll through all of our friend’s updates and I don’t know anyone who isn’t fascinated by Stephen Fry on Twitter. So how can I discredit the status update?

Well I can’t to be honest. This could actually be a revolutionary trend of electronic communication. In principle, we’re conducting two-way communication via a one-dimensional channel, answering the questions ‘how are you?’ and ‘what have you been up to?’ before we’re even asked the question. For the time being, it seems Facebook is our answer to telepathy.

By Graeme Anthony, Account Manager

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TWITTER ANNOUNCES CORPORATE CHARGES

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Twitter today unveiled its plans to start charging corporates for sending tweets to its followers. The move has been on the cards for a little while now and Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter explained:

“We think there will be opportunities to provide services to commercial entities that help them get even more value out of Twitter. If these services are valuable to companies, we think they may want to pay for them,”

With the massive upsurge in popularity of Twitter in recent weeks, (1,382% increase YOY in February according to Nielsen Online, although exact figures of users vary with little official information out there – possibly 5m, worldwide?) it’s no wonder Twitter wants to cash in as there’s potentially a large fortune to be made.

Actually the truth may be even simpler. Having recently refinanced there will undoubtedly be a pressing need to show a significant return to investors.

However, there are some pressing questions that need to be answered before the new charge can be judged to be a success or not;
How will the Twitter community respond?
Will there be a backlash?
Will brands and marketers be prepared to pay?
How will the cost of acquisition and cost of sale compare to other channels?
Will it devalue the overall user experience having sponsored areas?

Will Twitter be successful in its latest move or will it backtrack like Facebook ? What do you think?

twitter1

By Rick Guttridge, Associate Group Director

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