thebluedoor pr

Taking shelter from the Twitterstorm

2010-02-19T12:24:00.002Z

The term ‘Twitterstorm’ is fairly regularly used now in the media, describing an event when hundreds of Twitter Tweets (140 character messages) are sent by individuals at the same time on a particular topic. This has become the way for the online generation to express their opinions. It can be in response to a comment in a newspaper, a consumer product issue, controversial advertising campaign – in fact, pretty much anything.

PR agencies , especially in the digital PR space, are aware just how quickly public opinion can be shared using the web and the rapid impact (positive or negative) it can have on the brand reputation of their clients’ products or services.

What’s interesting is that the legal system has not yet caught up with regulating this type of activity. Protection for brands in the event of a negative Twitterstorm is not yet available from the law.

So it is increasingly important for brands and their marketing and PR agencies to monitor the web for feedback – positive and negative. Web 2.0 provides the most amazing opportunity for brands and their audiences to engage – providing direct feedback and enabling brands to hear what the end user sees as being positive / negative about the products and services they offer. It is essential that brands listen and learn from this valuable insight.

No matter the tone of the consumer feedback, it is important for brands to acknowledge the input. It could mean the difference between the success or failure of the product or service. Also, if a consumer has taken the time to provide comment, it should be acknowledged.

Web 2.0 is all about engagement and that involves both parties – brands and consumers.

Are Twitterstorms going to be the only future forum for expressing public opinion? That’s a space to watch. However, until regulation catches up with technology developments, brands must remember that Twitter and the web are powerful communication tools available to the widest possible audience. For brands, this could be the biggest opportunity or threat, depending on whether they engage now or decide to wait and see. No matter what approach they decide to take – listening right now is an immediate priority to ensure they are prepared for potential bad weather ahead.

The Future of PR – is it really digital?

2010-02-08T13:48:00.002Z

Digital PR is increasingly being talked about in the PR and Marketing media. PR agencies are starting up divisions or spin off companies to focus on digital communications services for potential and existing customers.

There’s no doubt that online communication tools such as Twitter, social networking and blogs are all part of society today, but so are conversations at bus stops, in coffee shops and in people’s homes. These face-to-face conversations are driven by information from print newspapers, TV and word of mouth news and views. We’ve got to remember that not everyone spends their day connected to the Internet.

However, with ongoing technology developments, these online and offline worlds may be merging even further. At the recent CES event in Las Vegas, new innovations were displayed including the latest in combining TV and Internet. With products like the Samsung Widget TV, the traditional living room that is dominated by the family TV, may now give that same family easy access to the Internet via their TV screen. The need to boot up a laptop or computer in order to access the web will be a thing of the past.

The distinction between web-based and more traditional information sharing sources is definitely blurring. PROs and Marketers must remember that it’s essential to understand the target audience you are trying to reach and ensure you include the correct media channels in order to reach them. That means being aware of all online and offline channels, and with increasingly rapid technology advances there’s plenty to keep up to date with!

It’s an exciting time and one that PROs should embrace in its entirety rather than focusing on one area alone.

Surrey Tweetup: digital networking in real life

2010-02-04T13:13:00.005Z

Last night, thebluedoor - Surrey based digital PR agency - hosted the second Surrey Tweetup in Farnham with very generous support from iBundle.

Organised through the power of Twitter - specifically using the recently rolled out lists and geolocation functions - 45 people came along to a very successful Surrey Tweetup. Kindly sponsored by innovation hub, iBundle, those attending were not only treated to drinks but also to an insight into the complex issues surrounding digital data interoperability by iBundle's founder Julian Ranger.

thebluedoor is committing to organising this free digital networking event on a monthly basis (we hope!). We are aiming to ensure that those attending will have plenty of networking (and drinking / social) time. In addition, we hope to source an interesting speaker to start the digital conversations flowing. A significant challenge in the digital world is its massively fast changing nature - cloud computing, real-time web, hyper-local, privacy - therefore each month's expert speaker will provide those attending with a relevant and meaningful update on a specific topic (rather than a business pitch).

The next #SurreyTweetup will be held on 25th March 2010 (venue to be confirmed - although it will be in Farnham). This event will take a slightly different format as it falls on the global Twestival event. Harnessing the power of Twitter, people will be meeting up around the world on the 25th March to raise much needed funds for Concern Worldwide.

So we are bringing Twestival to Surrey in the form of Twestival Farnham, which we're very excited about. As soon as the url and organisation information is released by the Twestival global organising committee, thebluedoor will be launching a dedicated Twestival Farnham blog where everyone will be able to get all the details. In addition, we will keep this blog up to date with Twestival Farnham information, plus there is already a specific Twitter Twestival Farnham feed: @twestivalfarnhm (missing the a because Twitter won't allow a longer Twitter handle). And in April, we will be running a 'regular' Surrey Tweetup gathering.

In the meantime, thank you all for attending last night. As promised, below is a list of everyone on Twitter who came along. Don't hesitate to put those I've missed out in the comments section below. And see you again!! (And next time I will be bringing labels so we can write our Twitter handles on - good suggestion from @k4thybrown.)

@jhhypnotherapy, @mewcenary, @neil_p, @emmafirth, @jamesfirth, @SEOtipsntricks, @rangerj, @benjaminellis, @thelastromantic, @mrmatthamm, @velohub, @emmabandey, @opensourcerer, @k4thybrown, @twentynine12, @suesearle, @4legs, @poldings, @andypike, @1minus1, @georgeLMoore, @projectfive, @pascalw, @asaltbde, @nickykriel, @wiggo, @rachela8, @knockbuckle, @mintytorus, @bhardcastle, @the_jchristie, @jeniferdav, @toni_jane, @guy1067, @rgosc, @abigailh, @sheila_parry

Success for Startups that look to the future

2010-01-29T09:44:00.008Z

We’ve all watched entrepreneurs with ‘brilliant’ ideas struggling to make an impact on Dragons Den. Okay, some of the ideas aren’t so brilliant and some are just plain mad but why is it that some truly brilliant ideas fail once they have the word ‘incorporated’ tagged on to them?

At the end of last year Jason Fried of 37Signals gave a talk at Y combinator’s startup school in Berkeley, you can see the summary of Jason’s talk on TechCrunch. Among the many insights into the pitfalls of starting you own company, Jason gave the advice that ‘failure is not a pre-requisite for success or a rite of passage.’

Having worked in and amongst startup companies, I find this advice very sage. Starting a business is a huge undertaking and, to be successful, every step taken needs to be carefully weighed and measured and small successes built upon and expanded.

This considered, the business and its brands should be planned with longevity in mind. It’s easy to put off making big decisions when you are building a business but it’s sometimes those bigger decisions that will determine your success.

A useful and insightful piece of advice for any new company comes from David Liss’s article on brandchannel: “Successful companies begin by addressing the important questions that prove there is a need for their product or service, a market exists to buy it, and that they have the capacity to meet the needs of this market.”

And this is why the process of branding begins by demonstrating that there is a need for your specific service or product in the marketplace. Determining market need and identifying who your consumers will be is a crucial first step for any new business.

Investing time and money up front to explore these issues and create a cohesive brand story alongside your business plan will ensure that your business looks to the future and has a greater chance of success. This is something we are experienced in at thebluedoor, helping you create a brand strategy and plan which will look to the future.

Social media and Web 2.0 statistics: a round-up

2010-01-25T16:50:00.005Z

In order to truly understand a business sector and develop an expertise, an avid reading habit is required. thebluedoor is a digital PR agency so consequently our reading material is quite varied to cover both the PR sector and those of our clients. Our PR focused reading list is quite broad (both online and in dead-tree format), and includes Wired, New Media Age, .Net, PR Week, Marketing Week, B2B Marketing and The Economist.

I thought it might be useful to post some of the recent digital media and online PR statistics that we have read about.

Facebook:

300 million global active users
22 million UK active users
50% log in and spend 25 minutes daily
Average 'heavy' users spent 125 hours over the last 12 months
59% year on year growth
75% of all time spent on social networks
8,325 billion minutes spent in the UK in September 2009

(Sources - B2B Marketing; NMA/Nielsen)

LinkedIn:

52 million users globally
3 million in the UK
Growing at 1 million every 12 days

(Source - B2B Marketing)

Twitter:

1,959% year on year growth
US leads by Twitter countries, followed by UK
6th largest social media site
There have been over 8,000,000,000 Tweets to date, and counting

(Source - NMA: Nielsen; GigaTweet)

Wikipedia:

3,1720,120 articles in English
19,245,419 pages in English
684,000,000 visitors in 2008

(Source - Wikipedia)

iPhone App Store:

30 million iPhone users
20 million iPhone Touch owners
Over 2 billion apps have been downloaded from 100,000 apps
AdMob estimates that $200 million worth of apps are downloaded per month ($2.4 billion per year)
By June 2009, the app software-development kit had been downloaded 1,000,000 times

(Source - Wired: AdMob)

3G Phones:

3G mobile penetration in western Europe has risen from 17% in 2007, to 29% in 2009
It is forecast to reach to 67% in western Europe by 2011
In Japan penetration rate is 67%
$43 billion was made from mobile Internet in Japan in 2008
610 million of the first two billion App Store downloads were for paid applications

(Sources - Wired: Morgan Stanley, Pinch Media)

Blogs:

133,000,000 blogs indexed by Technorati
3,561,000 RSS subscribers to TechCrunch
346,000,000 people read blogs
900,000 new blog posts every 24 hours

(Source - Technorati)

I tend to bookmark interesting articles on Delicious. Do have a look at what I've been reading recently, and I would be grateful of any recommendations. Thanks!

The year of innovative communication – a PR view of CES 2010

2010-01-20T11:27:00.002Z

Las Vegas has been the place to be this month for anyone with an interest in technology and/or PR. So for an active digital PR person like me, it was a dream to follow the latest news online and via Twitter. The 2010 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) saw more than 2,500 technology companies introduce more than 20,000 new products over the four-day event.

From a PR perspective, there was a vast amount of work to be done. The show itself claims in its official press release to have launched the ‘next decade of innovation’ with a record number of new consumer electronics products being announced.

The main consumer focus has been on the amazing new technology being launched and the impact it will have on our daily lives. But without effective PR to communicate the key messages and news accurately in a way that consumers from around the world can easily digest, that innovation - and ultimately sales - could easily be lost.

The PR effort doesn’t stop at just the event. Each of the exhibitors had a story to tell and that means:

- product launch announcements

- company information updates

- press packs

- visuals and photography

- interviews with company spokespeople

- product demonstrations.

This all involves a lot of logistics and forward planning. However, a lot of the PR activity has to happen just before the start of the event: last minute details about new product launches, availability of company representatives, products for demonstration, etc. These are all things that often can’t be finalised until the last few days before the launch event. And that’s not even mentioning the need to gain legal and third party approvals on announcements.

That’s when a PR agency can be invaluable for a company – ensuring the external communication of news on time and to target. Equally important is also sharing key messages consistently to that potentially global audience.

As a start-up or an established company with an innovation to share and a target audience to reach, having effective PR consultancy can make the difference between success and failure at new product launch stage. When it comes to the crunch, communication is the true key to successful innovation.

Twestival Farnham: 25 March 2010

2010-01-18T17:41:00.005Z

On 25th March 2010, cities and towns across the world will be harnessing the power of Twitter and digital media to raise much needed funds for Concern Worldwide. Twestival is a global event organised by a fantastic team of volunteers, and for those interested in hosting a similar event, the UK Twestival office is run by the very helpful @claireatwaves and @arengrimshaw.

In the charity's own words: "Concern’s work is informed by a vision for change and their education programs target the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world, with particular emphasis on reaching out-of-school children such as girls, orphans, street children, working children, children affected by conﬂict, children affected by HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities."

Twestival can truly make a difference. The first Twestival event, held just under a year ago, involved 220 international cities and raised over $250,000.00. The money donated funded the building of over 55 water wells in Uganda, India and Ethiopia, positively impacting over 17,000 people.

thebluedoor has decided to organise a Twestival in Farnham, with the generous support and sponsorship of iBundle, the Surrey based innovation hub. We know that there are a fantastic number of people and businesses in Surrey who actively use Twitter to network, do business and have fun. We hope that people will be inspired to support this event by coming along, lending a hand (in kind or in sponsorship), and helping us to raise some funds for a truly wonderful charity.

We have set up a Twitter account - @twestivalfarnhm (yes we know, it's missing an 'a' - Twitter won't let through longer account names LOL) and hashtag #twestivalfarnhm so interested peeps can keep up to date with our progress. Very soon we will be launching a farnham.twestival.com blog as an official source of event information and the global organisers are planning to ensure that tickets will be on sale some time in February. One way or another, thebluedoor will aim to keep everyone up-to-date with our progress.

If you are interested in finding out more, helping or even sponsoring an aspect of the evening's events (give-aways, prizes, music etc), please don't hesitate to let us know - info at thebluedoor dot com. We'd love to have you on board and are committed to creating an interesting, fun and productive event worthy of the main Twestival event.

Surrey networking: Tweet-up in Farnham, February 2010

2010-01-08T19:15:00.003Z

Twitter has become an established part of the digital PR communications tool-box for companies around the world. Twitter has increased the opportunity help businesses engage effectively and transparently with target online audiences, whilst evolving established communication processes in the public relations and journalism sectors.

As a PR agency based in Surrey, and following the success of thebluedoor’s last Tweet-up in December, we have decided to organise a second Surrey networking event on 3rd February 2010. And we’re very pleased to thank locally based iBundle for kindly agreeing to sponsor the evening’s drinks. iBundle is an innovation hub for software and web companies, providing innovative new tools and services for their target markets.

As before, proceedings start at 7pm at the Slug and Lettuce on East Street, Farnham. For those that are driving, there is a convenient car park at Sainsbury’s on South Street, and the nearest train station is only a ten minute walk away from the venue.

The Tweet-up offers an opportunity to meet up IRL (in real life), network with the local digital community and enjoy discussing some of the key developments in the digital space.

I hope that this is the start a regular Surrey-based free networking event. All are welcome: PRs, journalists, developers, programmers, freelancers – in fact anyone on Twitter or in the digital space who is interested in meeting up for a drink and a chat.

If you’re planning to attend, please let us know via email (info at thebluedoor dot com) or leave a comment below. We wish all the local tweeting community a happy new year and we look forward to seeing you all again in person.

P.S.: Date for your diaries – thebluedoor is already looking forward to supporting the global charitable event Twestival 2010. We will therefore be organising a Tweet-up in Farnham, Surrey on 25th March to raise funds for Concern Worldwide. Further details will appear on our blog shortly.

Digital PR: my education at thebluedoor

2010-01-07T11:11:00.005Z

I am thrilled to be starting 2010 with an eight week internship at the Surrey PR agency, thebluedoor. After completing PR placements in London in the travel and tourism sector last year, I am eager to continue my education and learn from a PR agency that is growing rapidly with exciting prospects for the year ahead.

thebluedoor – its clients and its digital PR expertise – offered me an internship which I was delighted to accept. As a relatively new PR agency I felt that I would be able to both learn from their experience as well as significantly aid the team in implementing PR strategies and campaigns for their wide portfolio of impressive consumer, B2B and digital brands. And from speaking to the team, I know that the coming two months will greatly improve my knowledge of PR and the importance of digitised communication for businesses.

And I’ve not been disappointed: on my first day I was I was asked to help organise a Tweet-up, inviting interested Tweeps in the Farnham, Surrey and Hampshire areas to meet and celebrate Twitter and its effects upon the world of PR, communications and business. I’m really excited about this project as it will provide me with first-hand knowledge of digital and social networking tools such as blogs and Twitter, and getting to grips with their power beyond sharing what I’ve eaten for breakfast.I know I’m going to be challenged and supported whilst at thebluedoor, they have committed to ensuring that I learn rather than just being thrown in at the deep end. And having met the team, I know that as well as some hard work, there should also be plenty of fun to be had along the way.

Written by Liam Sherry, Intern at thebluedoor

Technology and PR networking events for January 2010, plus a review of TechCrunch (#xmascrunch)

2009-12-17T11:55:00.006Z

Tuesday's TechCrunch for the UK and Europe's vibrant start-up sector, organised by @mikebutcher, @PetraJohansson and @rassami, was excellent. This now-regular gathering provides a place and a space for the latest thinking in the technology space, attracting start-ups such as Catwalk Genius, established businesses such as Skype, VCs and angels such as Balderton, as well as journalists, PR and SEO communities. Here is an excellent review of the day's proceedings by Basheera Khan.

In front of an audience of almost 1,000 (including those via live-streaming) key notes speeches delivered by TweetDeck, Festbuzz, Seesmic, The Filter and Tweetmeme provided some interesting insights into developments in the Web 2.0 space. Key themes for 2010 that came up again and again were hyperlocal, sentiment analysis, and real-time.

Here a selection of my Tweets from the day:

Tweetdeck - has 19% of non twitter based applications
Tweetdeck 10million downloads to date - but what's next! Funding, services eg: LinkedIn, updates to directory, mobile
Tweetdeck essentially locks people in via lists/organised experience
Sentiment companies are chasing the Holy-Grail. There will always be a trade-off in real-time.
What does 'real-time' mean to you? Immediate? Soon? Later?
It is reputation, content, context or location that makes information relevant
Same content different delivery: successful paywalls are rare
Location in online delivery is going to be a significant theme for next year. 09: cloud + real time, 10: real time + hyperlocal
Quality journalism is not dead, long live quality journalism
Info about info is more valuable than the info itself
Vertical and real time is where the true value of search lies

Networking is an essential part of building any business. January 2010 is much quieter (probably due to detoxing requirements after December's frenzy of events), however here are just some of the technology and PR events happening up in London that we could find:

21/1/10: CloudCamp London - unconference style event striving to advance cloud computing
27/1/10: Digital Lounge - topic to be announced, but always a great group of people
28/1/10: MashUp - Apps: What's your strategy? - investigating the link between mobile web strategy and apps
2/2/10: First Tuesday - To charge or not to charge - though leadership seminar
15/2/10: The Debating Group - topic to be announced, but a great proper debate held in the heart of the House of Commons

Twitter: Surrey networking - a review

2009-12-17T10:46:00.009Z

Last week, we organised the first Twitter networking event in Farnham, Surrey (aka a Tweet-up). On a busy week full of festive gatherings we were delighted with the interest and attendance.

We organised this gathering following encouragement from all sides, led by @emmafirth of the Daily Telegraph. It was great to see quorum of Twitter enthusiasts rocking-up, including: @jamesfirth, @andypiper, @guy1067, @toni_jane, @jeniferdav, @kwright5, @pascalw and rachel_adams88.

There were a good number of conversations including:

Telegraph expenses story
Paywalls / free content
The rise and rise of Google
The digital goldfish bowl
Programming: Ruby, Adobe AIR, .NET
The perils of marathon running (!? - @guy1067 is gearing up to his second Marathon and is tackling London in April 2010)

We will definitely have another evening Tweet-up in the New Year, so the conversations can continue.... currently thinking end of January, beginning of February. Do let us know if you would like to come: info at thebluedoor dot com, and when.

Is there such a thing as online privacy?

2009-12-07T13:22:00.005Z

On Friday night, we spent an interesting evening in London listening to a talk by a security expert and well-respected author of titles such as Beyond Fear and the Crypto-gram newsletter. Bruce Schneier is a world-renowned security technologist and has researched issues of security spanning password protection through to illegal wiretapping.

The focus of Friday’s talk was the ‘Future of Privacy: Rethinking Security’. It was an extremely informed insight into the digital footprint of the average person today – from Gmail accounts, social networking sites such as Facebook, through to surveillance technology set up at Government level aimed at protecting our personal security, such a security cameras and licence plate monitoring.

It’s not realistic to be a full member of today’s society without having an online or digital social footprint – whether proactively created or not. And the majority of what is captured about us digitally can help us in our daily lives – for example behavioural marketing. How many of us are still impressed by Amazon proactively offering us suggestions for other books we’re likely to enjoy based on past purchases? We’re all seduced by the convenience of what technology can offer us.

What does raise concern is that legislation is lagging behind technology developments. Technology is amazing as it disrupts and changes the balance of the way we work and live – normally for the better. To ensure there is a good balance between liberty and privacy, however, laws like the data protection act are required. And these laws need to keep pace with technological advances to ensure our licence plate details, for example, are used for the right reasons.

As is often the case, it may take a scandal for the general population to change their online habits and become more aware of sharing too much personal information online. Few people realise that a closed Facebook account still exists, it just can’t be seen. And how many of us check the privacy settings of our email and social networking accounts before blindly accepting the default option?

Bruce Schneier pointed out that it is now cheaper for companies such as Facebook and Google to retain our data than it is to destroy it.

Although I won’t be stopping writing blogs and talking to friends and family online, I will be thinking more about what I share from now on.

This talk was organised by the Open Rights Group (ORG), an organisation set up to protect the public’s rights in the digital age. Founded in 2005, ORG has become the UK’s leading voice defending freedom of expression, privacy, innovation, consumer rights and creativity on the Internet.

The talk was a real eye-opener and based on the number of questions that kept on coming at the end of the evening, I’m guessing there’s a lot of information to process both on and offline for the majority of the audience and will be for some time to come.

Social Media and Online PR: Econsultancy's 2009 report

2009-11-26T07:29:00.005Z

PR has been through a torrid 18 months, as have most sectors across industry. We launched thebluedoor in Surrey 20 months ago and have grown through the eye-of-the-storm. By taking the necessary lean approach, we are winning business, growing accounts but most importantly delivering our clients fantastic results and great service - exactly what we are paid to do.

Key to our offering is integrating online into PR communications strategies, which is why yesterday's report - 'Social Media and Online PR' from Econsultancy has been a must-read for us all.

WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell has been extremely vocal about the role online has in taking PR out of recession - it has an important role within any communications strategy. And this report into the state of the Online PR industry certainly demonstrates that his prediction is more than just crystal ball gazing.

Econsultancy is (in their words) "an invaluable resource for Internet professionals who want practical advice on all aspects of e-business". And, as a word of caution to the results, by its very nature, the people involved and interested in its community and research are digital practitioners or at the least curious about the role online has in business.

Just some useful insights into the social media and online PR industry include:

Just 10% of businesses are not engaging with any social media activity
Smaller companies are quicker to jump into the digital space and use the digital tools, due to their inherent ability to be flexible, as well as willingness to experiment
Twitter's 'darling' status is clearly demonstrated: micro-blogging is the most widely adopted tactic used by 78% of companies
59% of respondents do not have social media rules in place for employees to follow

I was interested to see that 24% said that measurement - or lack of - was a significant barrier to more effective social media engagement and direct traffic to sites was the most commonly used metric to measure social media activity. I am currently working with Kate Hartley of Carrot Communications to produce the first online PR measurement guide for the PRCA. To be published in 2010, it is planned to be a useful, practical and informative overview of the best practice methods currently being used.

I have also got a keen eye on the types of agencies delivering social media and online PR for companies - particularly as the SEO industry is going through significant changes. Search is loosing its snake-oil qualities and its value is moving into reputation management, conversations and transparently - the pillars of PR. In Econsultancy's report the highest supplier sector is traditional PR agencies at 15%, followed by Digital agencies (11%), followed by Specialist online PR agencies and Search agencies level-pegging at 8%. (Interestingly 42% responded by saying that no external agency was involved in delivering social media and online PR activities.)

In Econsultancy's 2010 report, I am sure that we will see significant changes in this pecking order, unless traditional PR agencies work harder to up-skill and jump into the digital space properly. And this means using it and doing it rather than simply reading the books, blogs and research papers.

'In digital, data is the only currency' - discuss.

2009-11-24T10:54:00.005Z

Last night, I attended a debate at the House of Commons organised by The Debating Group and sponsored by the IAB. The motion was 'In digital, data is the only currency'. For the motion were Matt Brittin of Google UK and Louise Ainsworth of Nielsen, and against were Graham Hales of Interbrand and Mark Cridge of Glue.

To a packed audience assembled in Committee Room 10 (normally reserved for the discussion of finance bills which seemed rather appropriate), both sides presented eloquent arguments. These included:

For:

Data is pure, simple and beautiful. It efficiently connects businesses and people
data makes businesses smarter, faster and more efficient
data enables ideas to be tested
data allows people to be safer, healthier - it even saves lives
data provides granular insights to enable survival
data allows us all to build reach, frequency and impact - ensuring increased engagement, and enabling an increased, creative world.

Against:

Data cannot be the 'only' currency online - if we truly believe this, humanity is reduced to the mere binary
data is the new glut of 'stuff' for us to deal with - wine lakes and butter mountains of data
digital is about the human and social connections: it is about what we choose to do with the data that makes it valuable
ideas change lives, not data
the true currency is what we do with the data
if we only value data, we risk knowing the cost of everything but the value of nothing
human intuition is the most important currency online, data is just the canvas.

And then it was the turn of the floor to propose opinions and questions. There was significant, eloquent resistance against the motion. One orator reminded us of the story of Phineas Gage - a 19th century labourer who suffered an appalling brain injury with a pole skewering through his head. Remarkably he survived, able to compute, understand and communicate with intelligence and lucidity. However, he lost his human values, emotional resonance and ability to make rational decisions. Data enables computers to compute, ensure logical results and access to information - however without the human interpretation, it is meaningless - a currency with no value.

I am glad to report that the argument was not carried by the popular vote (approximately 65% voted against the motion) - the flaw was surely in the wording of the motion.

I believe that the true value of digital networks and tools lies in how we interpret the data and what we do with it. But as Alan Patrick cautioned the audience, if data is even being considered as possibly a global currency, then it is one without regulation, laws or governance. This surely must be an challenge that is tackled before too long.

Festive tweet-up in Farnham

2009-11-23T12:30:00.005Z

Twitter has taken the world of journalism and PR by storm. With its 1,959% year on year growth, its use in the world of communications is firmly established. Although the world of Twitter is online, I have met some interesting, inspirational and awesome Tweeters in real life.

So to celebrate all things Twitter and Christmas, and with encouragement from fellow Farnham Tweeters @jamesfirth, @emmafirth and @guy1067, we have decided to organise a festive gathering in Farnham, Surrey on 10th December 2009. Kick-off is at 7.30pm, so come along and meet up in person at the Slug & Lettuce on East Street. For those of you driving, there is a handy Sainsbury's car-park on South Street, and for those of you coming by train it is just ten minutes walk from the station.

Let us know whether you are coming by either sending us an email or leaving a comment below. It would be great to meet up with the Surrey Twitter community in person, and of course raise a glass to the festive season.

Technology sets entrepreneurs free – or does it create a Second Life?

2009-11-18T15:39:00.005Z

We’re in the middle of Global Entrepreneur Week, so it’s no surprise that there is a focus on start-ups and entrepreneurs in the media at the moment. Although there have been some conflicting messages.

New research conducted by business advisory firm, Deloitte found that 75% of entrepreneurs in the East of England have found business opportunities during the recession.

However, another piece of research conducted by small business specialist Intuit UK showed 40% of those interviewed were waiting until the recovery kicks in before they start up their new ventures – hoping for better conditions.

The Times newspaper today gave a good overview of the possible scenarios, but two messages remain clear to maintain those great initial business ideas:

– the need for effective funding

- a well-considered business plan.

Having attended an excellent seminar by Business Link in Guildford last night, it was great to be in a room of self-starters. The scale of operations being run by the people there varied, but everyone in the room was keen to learn more about how technology can help small businesses manage their time to help them focus on their core business.

It was an insightful whistle stop tour as there are so many technologies that help companies across a range of areas, such as:

- Organisers/ virtual assistants

- Remote working tools, like GotomyPC

- Collaborative software, for example Webex and Sharepoint

- Internet based communications, such as Skype

All great ways to cut out time spent on administration or needless travel – how many of us travel 3 hours each way to attend a one hour meeting?

What interested me particularly this week is that social media is still considered a technology for the future for businesses.

Considering the number of companies effectively using the virtual world of Second Life already - for training, meeting with prospects, etc. - it seems a shame for this free medium to be ignored now. Its popularity within corporates is supported by the creator’s (Linden Labs) launch of Second Life Enterprise earlier this month targeted at the corporate world.

And it doesn’t have to be an expensive investment. There are numerous free tools available to aid collaboration – the key word that describes Web 2.0 – which make them perfect for small businesses looking for cost-effective ways to enhance their operations.

Whether it’s a Blog that provides a direct channel to a wide potential audience or Twitter which can work as an effective customer service tool, there are easily accessible tools to suit every need.

The main concern for most entrepreneurs and small businesses is finding the time to research these tools and try them out – yes, how ironic! As with any business equipment, from computers to mobile phones, it’s important to find the right tools to meet your individual needs.

Take some time to really think about what help/ support you need:

- What are the areas of the business that take up the most time (travel, administration, etc.)?

- How comfortable are you with existing technologies (phone, computer, etc.) and how do you use them now?

- What is the key focus for your business currently?

- Budget!

Once you take the time to review these things, your range of options will become clearer and easier to select from.

Trying them out can then be much easier to schedule into your day and the benefits are outstanding – in the short-term as well as the long-term future.

Social media, journalism and politics: a fatal embrace?

2009-11-15T13:22:00.004Z

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and now SlashKey are all continuing to grow with stunning speed according to exclusive research by Nielsen Online published in new media age (05/11/09). Key to their growth is the fight for their online audience's time. UK online population spent 11.1 billion minutes using social media sites during September 2009, an increase of 83% on the previous year.

Twitter - public enemy number one or popular darling, depending on whether you are a 'typical' BBC Moral Maze listener or enthusiastic Reuters news pundit - continues to grow. Currently standing at sixth most popular social media sites by unique users (4.43 million to be exactly), it is the fastest growing online real estate (1,959%), with 5,734,350,000 Tweets to date and counting.

Earlier this week, I attended a debate at Reuters to discuss with other Twitter users from the worlds of journalism, politics and PR, to discuss Twitter and social media's role in shaping the world. Top of mind were recent debates including BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze programme where people on Twitter were described as a "baying mob", as well as the recent Jan Moir/PCC event, plus Trafigura.

Of course at a self-selecting event such as this, there will always be an element of the digital gold-fish bowl preaching to its-self. However, I came away feeling that the reason why these tools are important are for the same reason that a complaints line, or marching against the poll-tax have always been important. Whilst I doubt that Government ever will take such tools to the heart of their communications strategies, social media certainly has a place, a powerful one too, at the table for those with ambition, aspiration, ideas and desire to make a difference. However, these same tools become less permissible as people progress up the food chain - the voice of the one has to bend to the voice of the party (a touch of the Stalins creeping in here), particularly in our current 'democratic' process of party line and party whip.

In today's anguished world of publishing where the debate on free vs. paid seems to rumble on towards its doomed end, social media has added a layer of complexity to the mix. Does a publication compromise the truth for the need to be the first to break a story? Speed puts the industry under immense pressure, however many of the journalists attending, particularly the younger ones, kept on reminding the audience - nothing has changed. The tools have evolved but the reasons haven't.

Digital PR: Google 4 grown ups

2009-10-20T10:53:00.009+01:00

Google is the daddy - that was the message from the seminar I recently attended. Not that I had any doubts on that subject, with Google funneling the majority of search queries as well as developing extended services like Google Wave and Google Docs, no-one is currently in a position to challenge their status.

Being interested in web optimisation and ever keen to keep up on the latest methods that Google is using to crawl, index and serve up search results, I was looking forward to the seminar hosted by Thoughtbubble and delivered by Tim Ireland. And I wasn't disappointed. Tim is an excellent speaker - his experience and knowledge is vast.

If you have been following our recent debates: PR vs SEO, you will know that we, at thebluedoor, believe PR and online PR, and SEO are complimentary but very different skills that share one common goal: raising and maintaining "brand" reputation.

Hearing Tim talk about his experiences and showing live examples of his work underscored what we have heard from Matt Cutts and other Google gurus: reputation is key. There are no shortcuts and no substitute for longevity: well written keyword rich text and strong inbound links gained through sucessful partnerships are what really count.

Surrey strides out for charity

2009-10-18T19:26:00.004+01:00

It was fantastic to take part in the Farnham Stride on Sunday - a 10Km sponsored walk around the beautiful Surrey countryside, taking in the Frensham Ponds area. This local event was just one of the many activities being run in aid of Cancer Research.

It was a great turn out with people of all ages from around the Surrey area taking part. There was real camaraderie amongst the participants and the ladies from the fitness centre, Curves really showed their team spirit by wearing brightly coloured pink wigs and setting the pace for the entire group.

Events like these are an amazing way for groups and individuals to help to support charities, but they don't just happen overnight. Working in the PR industry, we know what a great deal of organisation is needed to make events a success - from the promotional material, through to the administration and logistics. Whether it's a professional events team or volunteers, the organisers play a vital role that requires dedication and hard work.

To co-ordinate a diverse group of people, as well as motivate, cater for their needs and ensure they get the most out of the event takes a lot of effort, which can often go unnoticed if things run without a hitch. But the knowledge of a job well done can go a long way. So that just leaves me to say a big thanks to everyone involved in making the Frensham Stride such a success - and to share some images from the day!

PR sector and recession: in or out?

2009-10-14T17:06:00.004+01:00

Last week I, along with many of the other managing directors of the PRCA's PR agency members, attended the PRCA/CorpComms conference optimistically titled 'Emerging from a recession'.

However optimism was certainly not high on the agenda. Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, delivered the key note speech which firmly stated that any hope of an upturn was not being translated into fees or orders.

However he did highlight three trends for 2010:

Geographical focus: although the PR/communications sector is stagnant in Western Europe, there is a 'gold rush' in Asia.
Online is key to any PR offering and currently accounts for 25% of the WPP business - and this growing.
Agencies offering consumer insights are highly regarded by clients and seen to deliver true value.

In addition, Sir Martin did share the opportunities for the PR world (and as opportunities, these can easily translate into threats if not acted upon):

Globalisation: there is a key shift in economic power from Western Europe through to Asia, Africa and Latin America. And for those of us in Europe, coming out of recession will be slower and tougher.
Overcapacity: the PR industry in Europe is bigger than the client need, therefore differentiation is critical.
War on talent: the global demographics are resulting in a restriction on the supply of talent, therefore it is vital that agencies continue to incentivise, motivate and retain good staff.
Internet: understanding and embracing Web 2.0 is vital, along with the associated understanding that it is increasingly what we know rather than who we know.
Retail: this is a powerful force, and brands will need to maintain - even increase - promotional spending in order to main shelf space.
Internal communications: after this period of deep recession, a focus on internal communications is now more important than ever. It is vital that a 50:50 resource focus is put on internal and external communications in order to ensure that CEOs adequately communicate strategic and structural change.
Client centralisation: with the opportunities of globalisation and the internet, agencies will experience clients becoming more centralised.
CSR: even in the dark days of recession, CSR continues to be vital for businesses - not as a charitable or altruistic response, but due to its fundamentals of good business practise.
Government: as the biggest advertiser, the government is the UK's most significant client and as such represents a huge opportunity for the PR sector.

Sir Martin ended by saying: "Things are less worse, not better.... and those with a strong focus on branding and innovation will win."

As a member of the audience, I feel hopeful that our innovative focus on helping clients to integrate digital PR into their communications strategies will enable us to continue to grow through the death throws of this current recession. I also feel hopeful for our clients who have positively, even ruthlessly, responded to the opportunities that the downturn has brought.

SEO Chinwag London event: a PR's round-up

2009-10-14T14:59:00.005+01:00

There were some interesting insights at Chinwag's Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) event 'Search is dead, long live search'.

Chinwag had once again assembled a brilliant panel, all who contributed their expertise and opinions, including: Alan Patrick, Nick Garner and Teddie Cowell. It was chaired by Jon Myers.

As well as covering and debating current ground, the panel were asked to look into the future, and the following points were highlighted:

Discount Bing at your peril: definitely one to watch and is growing share quite dramatically at the moment,
the future of search is about conversations i.e. PR, and these conversations must be helpful and truthful,
real time search is growing in importance: Google was taking four to six days to index Twitter, now it is six hours,
hyper local relevancy is going to gain in importance,
there are many people focusing on tackling filtering / relevancy of search results – these will lead the game,
the war on spam from affiliates has only just begun,
ignore mobile at your peril: markets such as Korea and Africa where mobile penetration is at 120% will be leading the charge imminently,
there is currently a changing of the guard re: Google – they are the incumbents: innovation is being driven by the new kids on the block.

The event delivered lots to think about, but interesting that the SEO sector is moving ever closer towards PR. Therefore, an understanding of SEO is a vital skill for any PR agency to embrace.

Social Media Boosts Business in Surrey

2009-10-06T09:42:00.003+01:00

It’s hard to believe that we’re already in October, but I guess that’s a sign of what a busy year this has been at thebluedoor as the time has just flown by.

With our specialism in digital PR and integrating online into more traditional communications strategies, we’ve had a lot to talk about this year as increasingly companies are seeing the opportunities that Web 2.0 has to offer their business.

So we’re really excited about being able to share our research and practical knowledge at the Woking Means Business exhibition this Thursday (October 8). Aimed at growing companies in the Woking/ Surrey area, the event is promoted by the excellent local Chamber of Commerce.

I’ll actually be giving a lunchtime talk on ‘How Social Media Can Boost Your Business’. As an SME ourselves, thebluedoor team is well placed to explain the practical business benefits of engaging with social media tools and give some guidance on how best to approach Web 2.0.

As a digital PR agency, we understand that social media is all about conversations – listening, engaging, and learning. And Woking Means Business will be a great opportunity to put some of those skills into practice!

Already sold out and with over 75 exhibitors, we’re really looking forward to the event.

If you’re able to go along, it would be great to see you.

Woking Means Business takes place between 9.30am – 5pm on Thursday, October 8 at the HG Wells Conference & Events Centre, Church Street East, Woking.

The Ultimate Digital PR Technology Wish List?

2009-09-22T09:31:00.003+01:00

Reading the FT this weekend, I came across an article about a hi-tech treasure hunt (geocaching) as part of a feature on ‘pursuits – the things we long to do’.

It got me thinking about the technology we long to use and those bits of kit that we can no longer do without.

The list of potential gadgets I’d like to have access to is endless – from a 3D home cinema to interactive computer screens in the office. However, as a digital PR professional, I know that realistically most of the technology I crave is linked to enhanced communication.

Like many people, I can’t be too far away from my Blackberry. Not only is it my link to email and phone, but also Twitter, Video, Web and much, much more. What better way to capture an important moment and be able to share it with others while on the move? While your PDA of choice may differ, the desire to keep in touch via multimedia remains fairly consistent for most people – just look at the ongoing demand for the Apple iPhone and the forthcoming Palm Pre.

This week, the Guardian carried an article by Charles Arthur on how technology journalists seem able to spot the latest tech that is likely to succeed and still be used in five, ten, twenty years. It was an interesting insight into how leading journalists such as Rory-Cellan Jones work, but also reminded me why following the tech media is vital as the findings truly do impact our daily lives.

At the start of my career in PR (some fourteen years ago!) the communication tools available were landline phones, fax machines and the Royal Mail. Even working at the forefront of technology it was some time before we had the excitement of a dial up Internet connection for the entire team to share.

Now being contactable 24x7 is the norm and patience for information to be sent or retrieved is limited to a few seconds. Forgotten are the labour intensive research tasks we used to undertake using telephone directories and encyclopaedias.

I believe technology advances are an essential way of enhancing our lives – don’t forget the same tech that keeps us in touch with the office keeps us in touch with our friends, family and leisure pursuits. The possibilities are endless - we can all become farmers via a Facebook application or learn cutting edge new skills via virtual training sessions on SecondLife.

So, what would communications technology would you find essential for your ultimate weekend pursuit? I’m still working on my technology wish list –at least there’s still 90 days to go before Christmas…

PR vs. SEO: the great debate

2009-09-11T17:22:00.004+01:00

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) agencies have been extremely vocal about how the PR (Public Relations) industry apparently does not understand digital. Let's just knock that myth on the head - we do.

In this month's Communicate magazine's regular @loggerheads slot, I was given the opportunity to debate with Andrew Girdwood of Bigmouthmedia. Neil Gibbons, the editor, asked: "Who is better placed to assist a company in its social media strategy - a specialist PR firm or a SEO consultancy?"

The @loggerheads debate format doesn't really allow either side to win, and when two opposing sides are arguing from thought-out (dare I say, entrenched) sides it would be unlikely for either side to concede ground in such a public forum. However I stand by my principle that I have argued before and with Andrew during the debate: PR and online PR, and SEO are different but hugely complimentary skills.

The argument that SEO agencies such as Bigmouthmedia keep on recycling - that PR agencies just don't get digital - is null and void. We do. The standard of best practice and knowledge that I see coming out of the PRCA and its Digital Committee, as well as the industry in general, is amazing. Genius practitioners such as Mat Morrison at Porter Novelli, have deep and clear knowledge of both PR and the web (its technologies, its algorithms and its psychologies).

As an industry, PRs should stand up and be proud of our digital knowledge, our multi-channel experience and our online skills. SEO is extremely important in any social media strategy, however just one part of an online / off-line delivery specific to each client and their objectives. It's vital that both sectors understand and value each others' benefits, and work together in a way that delivers meaningful results.

Maths and the media - a lively debate at the British Science Festival

2009-09-07T12:53:00.007+01:00

Last night, some of thebluedoor team went along to the British Science Festival talk on ‘Why journalists love stupid equations’. Having worked in the PR industry for many years, we were intrigued by the topic.

This extremely interesting talk was led by Simon Singh, accomplished author and journalist specialising in science and mathematics.

The seminar was packed full of people from a range of backgrounds – journalists, academics and members of the general public with an interest in the topic.

‘Why journalists love stupid equations’ focused on the use of formula by companies to promote their product or service. Humorous examples given included: the perfect goal, the perfect day to shop before Christmas, and my particular favourite - the perfect way to pour gravy. Some of these were also highlighted by Mr Singh recently in The Guardian.

Simon Singh gave a comprehensive insight into his concerns about some mathematicians who provide formulae that are only developed for promotional purposes and are not based on actual mathematics. As these types of stories tend to gain a lot of media coverage, they could cause confusion for readers over what is real and what is fantasy – potentially giving scientists and mathematicians a bad name.

The talk was informative as well as hugely enjoyable. Based on the number of questions at the end, it seems that the debate over the use of such formulae by the media and companies to promote their products is likely to go on for some time!

Having enjoyed this event so much, I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s talk on ‘The House That Twitters’. And of course, I’ll be Tweeting about it!

Cloud Computing: cutting through the hype

2009-09-02T09:44:00.004+01:00

Last night I attended First Tuesday's networking seminar - 'The Future of Cloud Computing'. With an impressive line-up of speakers including Mat Clayton from Mixcloud, Stuart Hibbert from icomplete and Mike Wright from Striata, it provided a reality check to the current hype-cycle media clamour associated with all-things 'Cloud'.

Issues associated with the 'Cloud' were raised by most of the speakers, as well as the audience, time and time again. As Stuart succinctly put, these are: "Interoperability, security, reliability, performance, legal, portability, availability and management." And the costs associated with latency - by the micro-second - can be enormous: for example, a delay of half a second on search returns, Google loses 20% of potential advertising revenue.

A key point was also raised, that the 'Cloud' is certainly good for start-ups and projects due to its cost-saving benefits, however until standards such as the Cloud Manifesto (which looks at issues such as standards, security, evolution, access and discrimination, transparency, and interoperability) ensure that the sector matures, it is not a viable solution for larger global enterprises.

Striata's Mike Wright presented some fascinating case-studies that his company has worked on involving highly complex legal and technical issues associated with data transfers between the EU, America and China. He also highlighted the very real problems associated with the US Patriot Act. His obvious experience of having 'done it' was impressive.

And the closing words from Dell's Alastair Mcfadzean was that the cloud is an enabler. He said "Cloud is not about technology, it is about making IT efficient and more responsive to the business" - in other words, it is about businesses looking at their business models and adapting.

Ironically, one of the most well known Clouds that touches many of our lives - Googlemail - failed spectacularly, last night. There were thousands of tweets per minute of disgruntled, irate and upset users unable to access their Gmail accounts. This demonstrates how reliant we are on the 'Cloud' already - and even with a free-service there are massive expectations that it should be available and reliable.

Online PR vs. SEO? It's time for mutual respect

2009-08-30T09:23:00.003+01:00

Online PR (Public Relations) and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) have had a recent history of competing for each others' businesses. The time has come for this to stop. It's vital that both disciplines start to respect that each needs to champion and celebrate their sector-specific expert understanding and experience. Indeed, the time has come to start working together.

Key to brokering this peace is to concede that both disciplines have different end-games and techniques, as well as accepting that those in the PR sector practicing online PR have a deep technical knowledge of the web, its structure and behaviours. 'Digital natives' work in both sectors bringing their valuable technical experience to bear on their daily working lives.

PR - just because it is online (or can be online) - has not changed during this online revolution. Public Relations is just that: a relevant interaction with people who are a businesses' stakeholders, its past/present/future customers, its critics, as well as its die-hard fans.

Online PR must be integrated into our PR agencies and our PR strategies, not protected by the high-walls of geek-speak which results in making online the preserve of those in-the-know. Instead, online has to be normalised and we must encourage understanding of the tools.

At thebluedoor we have always worked with specialist SEO partners such as Guava for Mars Drinks, as this collaboration makes for a powerful team-effort. It's time to for digital PR and SEO to start working together in order to mesh mutually supportive techniques and strategies to drive and deliver meaningful results for our clients.

British Science Festival: #thegreatlookup launches Surrey's celebration of science

2009-08-29T16:48:00.006+01:00

Last night hundreds of professional, amateur and curious stargazers gathered together in Surrey at the University of Surrey to marvel at the wonders of the universe.

The Great Look Up - the first event of over 200 planned for this year's British Science Festival - attracted people from all over Surrey and beyond. The evening was opened by BBC journalist Maggie Philbin, and was hosted by both the University and the Guildford Astronomical Society.

On the week that saw the 400 anniversary of Galileo's telescope, as well as being the evening before the latest space shuttle Discovery's mission to the International Space Station, the timing for The Great Look Up couldn't have been better.

And what a perfect evening it was. With barely a cloud in the sky and a half moon providing practically the only light, there were a staggering number of telescopes from the incredibly large to my rather small binoculars. As the night darkened, all trained their lenses up to the wonders of space.

Those with both the knowledge and the telescopes, generously encouraged members of the public attending to view the Moon's craters and seas, Jupiter's rings and even the tiny blue point of Neptune (an incredible 2,000 million miles away).

I found the experience amazing, informative and hugely enjoyable. It opened up the marvels of the night's sky - and what a brilliant start to the British Science Festival!

Surrey reaches for the stars

2009-08-26T12:51:00.004+01:00

The 5^th of September will see the start of the British Science Festival, which is a fantastic opportunity for people of all ages to engage with the latest in science, technology and engineering. Each year the festival takes place in a different location in the UK and I am excited to say this year the festival is being hosted just around the corner from us at the University of Surrey.

As a digital PR agency we’ve been enjoying hearing about the latest event news on Twitter (@TheGreatLookUp). If the enthusiastic support that this year’s festival has already received from Surrey based businesses, members of the community and local organisations is anything to go by, this year’s festival is destined to be a wonderful event. There are over 230 events scheduled, making it the largest festival for at least 10 years and nearly 50% of these events are being run by local organisations.

Reaching for the stars….

As a prelude to the British Science Festival, the University of Surrey and Guildford Astronomical Society have teamed up to host what I think is a really innovative event that literally will get the people of Surrey and the surrounding areas reaching for the stars!

The Great Look Up (taking place on the 28^th of August 2009) is celebrating the 2009 International Year of Astronomy and is an opportunity for people of all levels of interest in astronomy to come along and enjoy the beauty of the night skies.

You can bring your own binoculars or use some of the equipment provided by local astronomers. And for those of you who have a telescope and just haven’t quite mastered how to use it, the organisers are encouraging you to bring it along and get some hands on advice to make the most of it.

The Great Look Up will be a great night out for the whole family with something for everyone to enjoy. There will be guest speakers including BBC TV presenter Maggie Philbin and Dr Stuart Eve from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, as well as a large projection telescope and of course a summer BBQ!

To attend you simply need to register your interest on the website.

Event details:

Date: 28 August 2009

Venue: The Varsity Centre, University of Surrey, Egerton Road, Guildford, Surrey

Time: 7.45pm – 11.30pm

So gather the troops, pack a blanket and enjoy the splendour of stargazing. Maybe see you there.

Back to the future – how digital media can make some films last forever

2009-08-21T10:21:00.003+01:00

Having recently seen the film ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ at the cinema, I started thinking about the amazing possibilities being able to see into the future might hold. The most obvious being the chance to win the lottery, but also to feed my digital PR interest in technology developments.

New gadgets, applications and especially lifehacker solutions never fail to impress me. But it’s been interesting how many ‘old’ technologies seem to be coming back (if slightly re-invented!).

Reading the FT’s Weekend magazine on Saturday, there was a great article by Tim Bradshaw about how Polaroid could be making a comeback. The company first introduced an instant camera back in 1948 and was still something ‘cool’ in the 90’s. Sadly, the company closed its doors in 2008 as it was considered ‘out of date in the digital age’. But now an Austrian Entrepreneur and a former Polaroid manager want to bring back instant film under a new name to meet the demand of Polaroid enthusiasts that still exists.

This Polaroid venture - dubbed ‘the impossible project’ – would revive the business on a smaller scale, believing strongly that it will break even. Embracing current resources available, the team is already using digital media to raise awareness, share pictures with enthusiasts on developments, as well as inviting the online community to input on challenges they are facing in order to find solutions.

It’s a wonderful story of how ‘old’ and ‘new’ technology is working together to meet a current need.

Having read this I was also less surprised to learn that there is a course available in bookmaking. The Papered Parlour in south London helps to keep alive an interest in an art form which could easily be forgotten in an age of digital books. But with a trial launch coming up of video ads in the magazine Entertainment Weekly (not unlike the newspapers in Harry Potter), thanks to a collaboration between Pepsi and CBS, maybe there is a future filled with even more old and new technologies being bound together?

If you’ve got an idea, starting a conversation online can be a powerful resource to gain input from experts around the world. While I wait for my personal inspiration though, I’m going to watch more Sci Fi films and look out for that next big new/old technology of the future!

Digital networking in London & Surrey - thebluedoor guide

2009-08-17T13:19:00.008+01:00

We thought we'd share a list of digital networking events that thebluedoor attends on a fairly regular basis - based both in Surrey and London. If you can go along to any of these, please do say hello:

TEDxTuttle - Tuttle Club: a regular meet up (Brighton, Reading and London based) which tend to happen every Friday and lots of people on the circuit, generally freelancers, go. There is an interesting looking conference on the 17th September!
Measurementcamp - this is a regular meet up in London which discusses the merit of online measurement and tries to drill down into best practice. It is headed up by a big name in the industry – Will McInnes.
TechCrunch – there are a number of events that are organised by this publisher and it's an exciting environment to be in.
Open Soho – they have a Facebook page and event announcements are normally shared via @PaulWalsh on Twitter.
Chinwag – these events are excellent and they are beginning to go down a training route.
eConsultancy – really valuable events and an informative organisation overall.
NESTA – innovative and quite a unique organisation.
Sun Start-up Essentials – sponsored by Sun, these are really good events.
First Tuesday – these have a dot.com feel and actually happen every other Tuesday, usually pulling in some charasmatic speakers.
Mobile Guildford – very mobile focused, it is still growing in its popularity but we've enjoyed those we've attended.
The Hub – quite a public sector focus, but with a wide range of speakers.

Should Pay Per Click advertising be part of your PR crisis planning?

2009-08-07T08:43:00.011+01:00

PR in a crisis is a challenge for any communications team. Being well prepared and practised is the key to getting the right message across at the right time. For a digital PR agency, the focus is usually on communicating clear, simple and relevant messages to the appropriate audiences. However in a crisis, PR is starting to embrace all digital tools as part of a strategy, including Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.

Behaviour in a crisis

With increased broadband access and the proliferation of personal computers, those affected by a crisis have instant access to online channels to spread their concerns, fears and anger when something goes wrong.

Communicating the right messages quickly and simply is vital in order to give information or reassure and demonstrate positive action to those affected.

It’s a two way conversation: be part of it

People search for news online. On hearing of a plane crash, a spreading virus or product recall they tend to go online in order to find immediate information. This is the stage at which a well thought through crisis plan will pay dividends. When search results are returned via Google or any other search engine, businesses need to make sure that the website they want people to go to is right at the top of the page.

For example: typing “swine flu” into Google search gives the following results:

In this example, the two top sponsored links are the Government and the NHS. Both websites give out practical, factual information on the virus, its spread, diagnosis and treatment. It is clear that the Government and NHS had planned for this crisis and were ready to roll out their campaign – providing clear information to the general public.

Paid search vs. natural search

We know that it takes time and dedicated digital PR to achieve good results in natural search (via Google or any other search engine) – typically three to six months. Once a crisis happens it is too late to improve natural search results. However, if there is advance knowledge of an issue over a number of weeks, a company can start building bespoke pages and optimise them for the relevant terms that people might search for.

Preparation is the key to dealing with a crisis online. Businesses need to be ready to deliver strategic messaging across all channels open to them: website, blogs, and other social media platforms. Use of Pay Per Click advertising can support existing communications and should be considered as part of an overall crisis strategy.

Getting stuck in – sharing rich media content

2009-07-28T13:27:00.006+01:00

In the true spirit of social media and online PR, I feel the need to share. A lot in fact - from video through to live Twitter feeds via blogs, emails, and so much more!

I never thought I’d find myself writing about embedded technology, but the ability to easily share such a wide and rich range of media (without having been trained how to code!) inspired me to write this.

Social media is all about sharing and collaboration, that’s not news. Many of us don’t even give a second thought to clicking a button on sites like YouTube to share something visual that has attracted our attention with friends visiting our Facebook, MySpace or Digg accounts.

Suddenly, a vast potential audience can share our selected videoclip, soundbite or image within seconds.

From a user’s point of view, it’s liberating. From a business perspective it’s a valuable marketing tool. Not only does it give straightforward access to an extended online audience, but it enables companies to make a connection with their target audience with content that is relevant to them in a form that they want. Also, enabling visitors to be walked through a process rather than having to read about it is invaluable – a picture tells a thousand words after all.

With the amount of information available to us online, how much more impact does something visual have? Who would rather read the transcript of an interview than watch it as good as live?

Video sharing – statistics to really know your audience

Aside from videos simply being more attention grabbing, companies also have the option to use video sharing sites to track insightful metrics such as:

Number of views

Viewing time

Demographics

Popularity

Traffic patterns

Tools enabling video measurement include: YouTube Insight & TubeMogul.

In a world full of constantly updating information, being able to stand out from the competition as well as track results is something to be valued – and shared!

So, in the spirit of sharing I hope you find this little nugget of interest:

Virtual worlds 2.0 – time for a Second Life upgrade?

2009-07-24T10:50:00.004+01:00

I previously shared some thoughts about what the future might hold for Second Life (‘Second Life in need of fresh blood’), which sparked off an ongoing debate with another member of thebluedoor team (I promise not to divulge names, Jenifer!). Her concern is that Second Life is still extremely popular and has a long and useful time ahead of it. I don’t disagree, but I do believe that it is moving into the more mainstream phase of its existence.

Out of our discussions came the agreement that some developments from within Second Life are amazing and have a lot to offer the world at large, not just the more ‘techie’ amongst us. A prime example of this is the Virtual Guide Dog, helping visually impaired Second Life users to navigate the global community by reading signs and using text to speech technology.

In light of this, I was delighted to hear that two UK start-up virtual worlds, ‘Real Life’ and ‘Near Global’, have received financial backing from the CEO of one of the largest technology venture capitalists, Ariadne Capital.

My excitement is not because they provide competition to Second Life, but because they have a specific purpose.

Real Life and Near Global are regarded as ‘virtual worlds 2.0’ as they have a particular focus, with a real world application. Both of them are currently in development stage, but here is an overview of what they will be offering when they go live:

Real Life aims to train users for particular careers through job simulations. The main target audience will be school and college leavers, providing them with a virtual world in which they can try out potential careers as well as connect with recruiters.

Near Global builds 3D replicas of cities (‘Near London’ is scheduled to be built ready to visit later this year). Its aim is to sell real estate to brands, offering visitors an online environment for shopping through to education.

Both have a clear focus and the capacity for online training and knowledge share is phenomenal.

These virtual worlds 2.0 may not be a Second Life upgrade as such, but they certainly offer a much more focused approach and will definitely be worth a visit!

Will Microsoft devour Yahoo! and challenge the unstoppable Google?

2009-07-21T15:14:00.006+01:00

In the world of search, Google has a 65% share of US traffic, Yahoo! with 19.5% and Microsoft trailing behind with only 8% (Guardian). The figures speak for themselves – so how can Microsoft hope to challenge the mighty Google in search?

Re-launching its search with the new Bing engine, designed to rival Google, does not seem to have done the trick, but perhaps that’s not what it was meant to do…

Maybe it was conceived to send other search companies a message.

Only a month after its launch we saw it taking some of the Yahoo! market share (Bloomberg). And it’s no coincidence that this week we see renewed talks between Microsoft and Yahoo! If talks succeed then maybe the resulting search engine can claw back market some of the market share.

Search companies make their money through advertising dollars and so far Bing hasn’t raised Microsoft’s search advertising revenue. In fact, it remains static at the 6% share it controlled before the launch (Eweek). That said, if Microsoft was to gain just one percent of the search share from Google, it would cost Google $220 million in revenue.

Rumour has it that Microsoft is about to announce poor fourth fiscal quarter results, following a drop in sales of personal computers bundled with its technology. Over the past fifteen years Windows operating systems have been the only option for many of us and now Google are starting to challenge that domination with its open source operating system Google Chrome OS.

It’s hardly surprising that Microsoft wants to regain some advertising revenue from Google but will it consume Yahoo! in the process? We’ll have to wait and see.

The science of search: has the Bing revolution begun?

2009-07-14T18:47:00.007+01:00

It appears that Microsoft’s newly launched ‘decision engine’ Bing has generated some great interest with an ever increasing number of web users trying it out. Yesterday Microsoft released its own data on the state of Bing just one month after its official launch. It makes for interesting reading…

According to Microsoft’s own data, Bing has seen an 8% growth in unique users to bing.com in its debut month and based on their own polling Microsoft has also seen an increase in the number of people ‘likely to recommend’ Bing to their friends or colleagues.

With its appealing design, easy navigation and claims to be able to deliver more relevant results than its competitors, Bing is certainly creating waves. However, while Bing appears to be making strong in-roads into enhancing the search experience in the US, here in the UK the current Beta version doesn’t enjoy many of the tools that enhance the US search results.

While it is strong on image results – I personally love how you can search by image type – it needs more work to be a real competitor to Google right now. Although this looks set to change, in a recent article featured in MediaWeek Microsoft UK's head of search, Paul Stoddart commented: "We want to make sure Bing in Britain is the best Bing in Britain we could possibly have." One to watch it seems…

While Bing in the UK continues to develop its search capabilities, real time search is evolving rapidly. The uniqueness is its immediacy. Micro blogging sites such as Twitter are fast becoming the buzz in the world of search. Even Bing has begun to include certain key Twitter feeds into its search results. Like wise, following its recent re-design and the introduction of real-time search, FriendFeed now updates continuously as data comes in. You can search for anything on the site and see it instantly. Real-time search is also possible for advanced search options, including search terms that you can save and track through FriendFeed, and on its blog widget.

The significance of real time search is the possibilities it presents. The lack of delay between composition and publication of information means information hungry audiences are provided with up to the minute results which are more relevant than those provided by more traditional search engines such as Google.

In my opinion these are exciting times for the world of search. Competition is healthy, new entrants to the search market will result in new innovations and help regulate the bigger players.

Digital networking: a review of Web 2.0 London events

2009-07-10T14:15:00.007+01:00

The world of PR and Web 2.0 has been busy this week. Here are just some of the events that thebluedoor has attended:

Reboot Britain: the week started with a thought-provoking event organised by NESTA. Its specific purpose was to set out a vision of support Britain during these tough recessionary times (see our earlier blog for further details).

Telegraph Media Group / Mobile Platform: on Tuesday TMG launched its new mobile platform and vision for advertisers to develop exciting, interactive, content-based applications through it. Companies such as as TigerSpike and the IAB presented, with some excellent insights into the mobile industry, including:

there are 1.5 billion TVs in the world, and 3.1 billion phones
applications are currently a significant driver of internet traffic - 1 billion applications have been downloaded to-date, with 3,000 iPhone applications downloaded per minute
40% of iPhone users use their mobiles more than computers to browse the Internet generating 65% of web traffic
there has been an increase of 36% of uptake of 3G phones year on year
13% of the UK population have a smart phone

Digital Lounge: this is a group with a strong mobile focus held its regular meeting in London on Tuesday. Scott Seaborn - Head of Mobile at Ogilvy - presented case-studies of work that the agency has implemented for clients such as IBM and Tango. One great example wove in technologies and platforms such as Google's Android phone and Twitter into an augmented reality application for use at Wimbledon. This showed users how long queues were for taxis or strawberries, plus status updates on tennis matches on individual courts.

Lewis PR / Social Media Summit: an event hosted at the company's media centre with speakers such as Will Cooper, Deputy News Editor of New Media Age, TechTarget's Bill Crowley, and Henry Clifford-Jones of LinkedIn. All shared interesting insights into how the PR industry is developing, plus some great 'did you knows' from LinkedIn, including:

1,000 new LinkedIn groups per day
1 new LinkedIn member per second
43 million global members, 11 million European Union members and 2.5 million member in the UK

TechCrunch / The Europas: THE award ceremony for Europe's Web 2.0 and mobile industry. This event appropriately ended the networking and knowledge gathering of our week where some interesting pieces of news were announced, including:

TechCrunch Europe Top 100 index launched
Bebo and Lastminute founders confirmed a new fund (see penultimate blog for further details)

The digital industry has certainly seen its significant casualties over the past year or so and more will surely come. However having been out and about in the business world over the last few days, optimism, creativity and innovation in the UK seems to remain high..... And, for the first time in a while, instead of saying "We must do something about this social media thing", businesses are starting to say "We are starting to embrace Web 2.0 and social media."

I hope that, unlike Baroness Vadera's comments in January this year, I am not wrong in thinking that there are indeed 'green shoots' re-appearing.

TechCrunch: ' The Europas' - and the winners are.....

2009-07-10T06:47:00.015+01:00

Last night TechCrunch (the blog bible for all things Web 2.0 and mobile), held The Europas - the publication's first-ever awards to recognise the brightest and the best in the industry. Over 250 people attended, with a stella cast directed by the editor Mike Butcher, including Robert Scoble and the Traveling Geeks, Brent Hoberman of MyDeco and Lastminute fame and Michael Birch of Bebo and BirthdayAlarm.

News of the night was that Hoberman and Birch have indeed partnered (the rumour broke earlier this year) to form a fund - PROfounders Capital and panel debate focused on why expansion of start-ups into Europe was so tough. (Although our cross-border eCommerce white paper - Borderless - was published way-back in October 2008, language was deemed to be a key factor, as Sarah Lacy on the panel pointed-out.)

So the winners were:
Grand Prix - Spotify
Best New Startup Summer 2008-2009 - Spotify (TweetDeck, my personal Twitter application favourite, was Highly Commended)
Best Investor - TAG The Accelerator Group
Best Startup Founders - Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon of Spotify
Best Mobile Application (EMEA) - Spinvox
Best Mobile Startup (EMEA) - Nimbuzz
Best Entertainment Application or Service - SoundCloud
Best European / Real World Gadget - Poken
Best Cleantech / Environmental Startup - AlertMe
Best Enterprise / B2B Startup - Huddle
Best Social Innovation (which benefits society EMEA) - Mendeley
Best Bootstrapped Startup (less than 3 years old) - Soup.io
Best Design - Songkick
Best Web Application or Service (EMEA) - Spotify

It was truly a fantastic evening. Spotify certainly swept the board, however there were some extremely deserving businesses in the Highly Commended categories. I'm personally hoping that the awards will be repeated next year to give well-deserved credit to the stars and future stars of this innovative and extremely exciting industry.

Reboot Britain

2009-07-07T13:54:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I went to Reboot Britain, an event organised by NESTA - the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

The idea of Reboot Britain was born from NESTA’s report "Attacking the Recession" which was published earlier this year and outlines measures to support a more dynamic and resilient economy.

In his foreword to the Reboot Britain publication Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO of NESTA tells us that Reboot Britain asks an important question of us in this digital age: given the unprecedented challenges we face, how can we best overcome them by harnessing the unique tools now at our disposal?

With this in mind I sat down to listen to the impressive line up of speakers on stage in the lecture theatre, and what a treat it was. Here are the highlights for me:

Gillian Tett - (Assistant Editor, Financial Times), talking about the banking crisis:
Innovation occurred in such small silos that no-one outside the system understood it and no one inside the system had the big picture.

Tony Ageh - (Controller of Archive Development, BBC) – Mining the Archives, a new Age of Opportunity:The BBC archives are about to get sexy. The BBC has 5 ½ miles of shelved archives and over 400,000 complete programmes. It would take over 120 years to convert these programmes into a digital format. Tony Ageh says the answer is to let people “have” the content; making this content freely available will create entirely new businesses. The media sector will reinvent itself through its archives.

Martha Lane-Fox – (Digital Inclusion Champion, Digital Britain) – Ending the Digital Divide: People being left behind are left behind in every sphere of their life. Let’s focus on getting the 6 million people who are most socially disadvantaged online; if we can do this, we can increase their confidence / motivation / skills / inspiration.

Charles Leadbeater – The Mutual Media Manifesto: Media is something we do with people, not to and for people. Renegades and pirates will be the ones to create the innovations of the future.

Alan Moore – (co-author of Communities Dominate Brands) - Straightline Thinking stops here, the true promise of the networked society: There is no more online or offline, there is only blended reality. Don’t talk about digital, talk about technology as co-operation.

These are just some of the great soundbites from the excellent presentations and although some left me with more tangible ideas than others, all were thought provoking and inspiring.

You can take a look at the Reboot Britain slide show below or download or follow the latest news and views on #rebootbritain.

Tweetcamp London: a review

2009-07-05T14:43:00.006+01:00

Last weekend over 100 people met up for the London TweetCamp, generously hosted by GumTree and sponsored by mymuseli, Sun Startup Essentials, Addlestones, PayPal and Yelp. Some were colleagues and friends in real life, but many were 'friends' and / or 'followers' who communicate online through Twitter.

TweetCamp provided an inclusive and welcoming place for people active and interested in Twitter to meet up, network and put faces to Twitter names. In true Bar Camp style, discussions were loosely guided and encompassed a range of subjects including: What people use Twitter for; The do's and don'ts of Twitter; Trends; and Business benefits.

For those reading this who don't know, Twitter prompts users to fill out a micro-blog posting using only 140 characters (this includes spaces and punctuation). Postings can be extended by the use of hyper-links to blogs. Conversations take place on Twitter either through private Direct Messages or in public. In order to talk to someone or get their attention, it is vital to the person's account name (Twitter handle) in the posting e.g.: '@toni_jane have you seen the Radian6 YouTube video?' By including Toni's handle in the Tweet, it enables the message to be searched more effectively and therefore discovered by Toni.

TweetCamp enabled free, unrestricted conversations to happen, online relationships could be explored face-to-face, and valuable insights shared. Interestingly though, at the end of the day when each participant was invited to contribute a summing-up comment, Tweet-speak prevailed.

One of the key aspects of the Twitter online community is that (in the main) people genuinely want to collaborate and be useful. And that was certainly true of the spirit of the day which would not have happened without the amazing and generous organisation by @farnhan, @cyberdees and @jonin60seconds, and brilliant facilitation by @benjaminellis.

So thank you all - and for me, Twitter has already become a more meaningful landscape having met some more of its inhabitants.

WolframAlpha - backing up the facts

2009-07-01T11:58:00.004+01:00

I really love this idea. The concept of cramming all the knowledge you can into one place and making it accessible to the world is so bold and so ambitious that you have to admire the guys at WolframAlpha for trying to pull it off.

"WolframAlpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything."

Now that's an formidable goal!

As you can see, WolframAlpha aims to be more than just a search engine. You can ask it about essentially any kind of systemic factual knowledge. In much the same way as some search engines work (Ask Jeeves), you can ask WolframAlpha specific questions such as: “why does a camel have two humps.” But that is where the similarities end. Instead of searching the web and returning links, WolframAlpha performs computations on its own internal database, using software programmes, and returns answers based on its findings.

Some of the data in that knowledge base is derived from public or private websites, but most of it comes from systemic primary sources. As you can imagine, this is a massive job and it is neverending....which is why if you ask the question “why does a camel have two humps" - it won't be able to answer you, at least not just yet.

As the project progresses more information will be available whilst the Wolfram team work through all the content areas covered by reference libraries, handbooks, and much more.

With so much work involved, (WolframAlpha is currently 5 million lines of symbolic Mathematica code together with many terabytes of data), it might be a while until we see the final release. But if the first version is an indication of things to come we can expect a lot more from Dr Wolfram's team in the future.

If you want to follow its progress you can track the teams latest news through the Wolfram blog and community area of the website.