Neworld: Facebook Credits, Google Instant, Priority Inbox & Calls, 16 Blogging Tips, Ping & Why Social Media Fails

As you know I post three to four articles a week at the Neworld Associates blog, specifically about social media and online marketing. At the end of most weeks I like to give a quick recap of what I have been writing over there. You may just think it’s worth checking out! In the last [...]

This Friday Lunchtime on Dublin City FM

A quick post just to let you know that I’m going to be Alex Gibson’s guest on The Persuaders radio show tomorrow (Friday). I’ll be on for 20 minutes just after 1pm GMT.I’ll be discussing all things Facebook from how to use it for business to the new Facebook Places. So be sure to tune in.

You can listen live online at: http://dublincityfm.ie/

The Persuaders

The Persuaders is a weekly marketing and media show broadcast on Dublin City FM. It’s hosted by marketing lecturer Alex Gibson who was invited by a then fledgling local radio station, Dublin City Anna Livia 103.2fm, to host a weekly marketing programme. Armed with little more than a microphone and a keen interest in topics ranging from advertising to branding to public relations, The Persuaders took to the air in May 2000 and quickly established itself as essential listening for the city’s diverse marketing community.

Worky.com – Between Facebook and Linked In

There’s a special offer to get a premium Worky.com account for LAB readers. Details are at the end of the post. Last week I was invited to a kind of pre-launch / introduction to a new social network called Worky. It’s aimed somewhere between Facebook and Linked In, it’s more professional than the former and less lofty than the latter, but it does have a focus on careers more than social aspect. The entrepreneur, Ray Nolan, behind the project summed it up as focusing on ‘opportunities’ be they one off’s or more longer term engagements.

Neworld: Facebook Spam, Blogging Tips, Google Realtime, Facebook Places Resources

It’s the end of another week and time for a recap of my blog posts over at the Neworld blog. 1. Facebook Spam On The Rise? I take a look at the rise in Facebook spam, what it means for users businesses and for Facebook, with a few handy tips on how to identify it. [...]

Beyond Thinking : Bord Gais

Bord Gais (An Irish Gas & Electricity provider) are no strangers when it comes to trying out new ideas in their marketing communications. To announce their foray into the electricity market in 2009 they spoke to bloggers ahead of the mainstream media to get their take on it all. That was incredibly well received. Earlier today they announced the launch of their new iPhone App, Think Beyond. The free app, available from today, allows consumers to check account balances, billing dates and transaction history for their electricity and gas. A future version will allow customers to monitor usage of power in the home.

So how do you go about launching an app like this? Think of your target audience – people with smartphones. They don’t necessarily have to be Bord Gais customers, but providing such a useful app may make non customers consider becoming customers. This is combination of early adopters, office/desk/pc bound who will gladly give up some time for a reward. So how can these people be reached in a way that generates buzz, ‘beyond’ what would be achievable in traditional media? Design a bunch of activities for them to take part in, offer some really cool prizes, use Twitter for its real time updates, it’s ability to post photo’s, and use those taking part to help spread word of the app and competition virally amongst a much wider audience.

The Rise of Infographics [Infographic]

Ok, so the headline isn’t true, but I would like to see an infographic depicting the rise of the infographics because for the last few weeks I feel like I have been inundated with them. Especially ones that relate to social media, or maybe thats more to do with what links I read or get sent online. I guess they help visualise a lot of data in an easy to digest manner. Some of them are useful I will admit that, and some are not so useful, and as can be judged from numbers 13 and 14 the backlash against infographics is well under way. Here’s a few of the more recent ones I have seen:

Neworld: Facebook Places, Pages, Streetview & When to Post

Greetings readers!

This week over at the Neworld Associates Blog – www.blog.neworld.com – I have been posting all about social media. Click through to read more on how often you should post to Facebook pages or blogs, how to improve branding, navigation and fan recruitment for your Facebook pages with these 9 basic tips, how Google Streetview has been used in marketing from travel to music to, erm, Zombies and finally behind the hype of Facebook Places.

7 Of The Best Youtube Marketing Examples

The Expendables Youtube Takeover and the Old Spice marketing of recent weeks gives me the perfect opportunity to finish a post I had started ages ago – about Youtube marketing. I was going to make it just about Youtube Takeovers, but thats a bit too limiting. In no particular order, and I might as well get The Expendables out of the way now….

Hurts (UK band) & Their Online Marketing

I’ve been a fan of UK synth band Hurts since I first heard a remix of their track Wonderful Life on last years NME Radar mix. Its a total 1980′s fest, and even their videos have something Pet Shop Boys about them. For a band that have very little material they have picked up an amazing amount of publicity in recent months and a few things about their online marketing caught my eye. Their marketing approach is a slight bit different with a heavy emphasis on integrating video and social networks to their marketing ahead of their website to build awareness and drive up fans.

Brands Bite the Chatroulette Bullet #2

Back in March I wrote this post on the use of Chat Roulette for marketing. Since then more brands have embraced the channel, some as genuine marketing experiments, and some maybe looking for the next nearest bandwagon to jump on. Chatroulette is best known for having a high number of naked individuals using the anonymous video service (best described here as Skype meets Stumble Upon). But Chatroulette has implemented a ‘report offensive content’ button, get flagged three times and the account is frozen and reviewed, which might make the site more mainstream. The site also claims to have upwards of 50,000 visitors per day making it attractive to marketers. While the concept of exposing brands to, erm, exposed individuals may be a bit edgy for some it hasn’t put off some brands from giving it a shot.