Everyone needs Twitter! (Well, those that are interested in using it properly) Todd Defren in his blog post yesterday asked whether PROs should “Get Into Twitter or Get Outta Public Relations”

Todd highlighted how PROs who used Twitter could improve their personal branding, have access to the knowledge of some of the industry’s most brilliant minds and build relationships with their peers.

If you read my blog, you would know about my initial scepticism toward Twitter and how I eventually changed my mind about it. I find myself regularly having to explain to friends and colleagues why I spend time Twittering during the day and in my spare hours after work. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s great Twittering during sporting events or during Twitter favourite, The Apprentice.

I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to get more involved in the social media side of PR – which is not everyone in the PR industry. Some people just don’t get it and never will – nor will every marketing manager (i.e. those who pay our wages).

Although we are seeing a huge change in the PR industry, I still think we are a long way off from the point when everyone needs to know about blogging and Twitter and the social media space (and can Twitter be used effectively as a marketing tool in the first place? I certainly haven’t signed up for the porn / dating sites that keep following me – I prefer the freaky stuff).

One of the criticisms of Twitter is that it still feels very elitist. Those that get it, use it well but it is essentially the same folk we’ve been contacting and communicating through blogs for the last couple of years, meet at the same events and have geeky conversations with – newbies can feel a bit left out. However, whenever I’ve got a new follower I’ve always dropped them a quick message to say ‘Hi’ and others have done the same for me. Those that criticise it on this basis are usually too scared to engage. An excellent example of someone who’s come onto Twitter and just steamed in is Jed Hallam, a Nottingham-based PRO who started following me and politely and apologetically, joining in conversations.

Another criticism is that it is self promotional. In many ways it is, people (ourselves included) have been posting up new blog postings on Twitter. I don’t have a problem with it, as long as they are not posing as someone else (which would be illegal nowadays anyway). It means that I am notified as soon as something interesting comes up. Is it spam? (Niall Cook is not a fan) but I find the ‘self promotional argument’ redundant – don’t follow them if you don’t like them.

I’ve actually started using it more of a chat room to talk to people and arrange to meet up offline, whether to set up a game of football or meet for a coffee. As for whether PROs have to be on Twitter – yes if you are a geek like me, but only if you are interested in it. If you are not joining in on the conversation and just want to criticise because other people are using it better than you then leave.

Labels: PR, social media, technology

  Permalink | 3 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 3:08 PM

  One page to unite them all We've all had a discussion at some point about the future of the web.

While some will talk of Web 2.0, the semantic web, mobile web or minority report style navigational systems, one of the first things to tick of the Internet to-do list is consolidating and centralising the huge amount of data on the web.

99.9 percent of the web is crap, and 99 per cent of the good stuff is irrelevant to me so there needs to be some of filtering it all. Searching on Google was great initially but with my web usage no longer merely surfing for news and porn, it is no longer as relevant. I've got at least five or so social networks (with only Facebook the site that I visit daily) and I'm on Twitter and IM most of the day.

Therefore, it's great news then to find that Yahoo! (are you suppose to still write it with the exclamation mark?) is rewiring its whole system in order to join up all of its disparate tools, which includes photo-sharing site Flickr, bookmarking site Del.icio.us and social calendar site Upcoming. In the future you'll only have to go to one page to get everything you want - at least theoretically.

One of my favourite things is Netvibes (thanks for the lovely Will McInnes for the tip) which goes some way to addressing the need to have everything together. However, it is literally lumping everything into one place with no real synergy between them all.

I'm looking forward to what Yahoo can come up with but a bit worried because I might have to relocate everything (I don't use Yahoo sites at all apart from Del.icio.us occasionally).

Labels: social media, technology

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:56 PM

  PRs mix with digital folk New Media Knowledge ran a gig last night at the Escape bar in Soho where some of the UK’s digital design elite shared their "work and wisdom". Each speaker was allocated just six minutes and 40 seconds to speak – with NMK’s Ian Delaney strict on the stopwatch. Tim Hoang went along from Rainier PR.

It was an excellent event with the strict time limit generating much humour. Special mentions to the sweary Nat Hunter from Airside / Three Trees who was particularly impressive and the crackingly-named Merlin Nation of Up the Resolution both of whom were funny and engaging.

BBC Motion’s Paul Merrimead tried to do a sales job which was a bit off the mark. He was great, like a mini-version of Al Murray but his presentation jarred with the rest of the speakers.

From a PR perspective, it was great seeing a different side to the industry. Typically, Will “the PR industry is fucked” McInnes is a lone voice from the design community at events aimed at PROs who operate in the social media space.

Finally an observation: the PR community has much to learn about style and presentation from its digital design counterpart. Digital guys are way cooler than PR guys - in an almost semi-parody Nathan Barley way - and their presentation is first rate. Social media will only carry campaigns so far as a channel and good content will always win out.

PR folk should definitely make an effort to get along to social media events to network with colleagues from the design industry - and of course pillage ideas.

A full list of presenters follows:

• Kevin Palmer / Matt Wade, Kin
• Colin Jenkinson, Cogapp
• Scott Mcpherson, Amoeba
• Nikki Barton, Cimex
• Merlin Nation, Up the Resolution
• Kevin Helas, Roger Design Consultancy
• John Davison, Kanoti
• Chris O’Shea, Pixelsumo
• Laura Jordan Bambach, Glue
• Lizzie Ostram, Germination who run Cut & Paste (Europe)
• Paul Merrimead, BBC Motion
• Nat Hunter, Airside / Three Trees

Labels: after work, personal, technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:09 AM

  Recessionary concerns call for strong professional and personal management Will McInnes makes the point that it would be irresponsible to ignore the turmoil in the financial markets and its potential impact on business. He’s right of course.

The last recession taught me some harsh lessons about management and financial planning. Budgets are now set on a quarterly basis and are reviewed monthly in line with rigorous key performance indicators and action taken to make corrections within any calendar quarter.

Working within the framework of a corporate organisation has also brought strong discipline. Decisions that were once deemed acceptable as an owner-manager are now severely tested.

Will also makes the point that it is important to get your own financial house in order. You could do an awful lot worse than buy a copy of Martin Lewis’ Money Diet.

You can get a weekly dose of Martin’s mantra via his weekly newsletter: protect your income, plan to eliminate debt, save cash, and spend every penny you earn wisely by always seeking out the best deal.

Labels: agency life, PR, technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:42 PM

  UK doom-mongers Why are people in the UK so bloody negative?

A survey of 200 UK business people by virtual business school Pentacle has found that two thirds believe that a recession or heavy downturn is unavoidable. 70 per cent claim to have “little or no experience” in handling a downturn.

How old are these UK bosses? 12?

Those of us in the tech sector have already come through one recession this century and are leaner and better equipped to deal with any economic slowdown than ever before. The same applies to businesses for the PR industry.

A recession is a decline in a country's gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters. The UK economy maybe slowing, but it’s a long way from a recession.

All this negative chatter is driving the market downwards and is totally unnecessary.

We’ve had a decade of sustained, rapid growth. Economic theory states that it can’t go on inexorably. Slow downs are inevitable and provide a driver for businesses to focus on costs and innovate. That is not a bad thing.

So, rather than British businesspeople moaning, we should be coming out fighting and looking for a way to meet any challenges as and when – or even if – they come.

Quick survey via comments: do you foresee a recession in the next 12 months?

Labels: PR, technology

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:32 AM

  Energy piglet The Waddington household has replaced all its candescent light bulbs for low energy efficient versions. In almost every case we’ve over specified the manufacturer’s equivalent rated low energy bulb to achieve consistent light levels.

But that’s no big deal; 16 bulbs rated at 1.2kW have been replaced by 225W worth, a saving of more than 80 per cent in energy usage. With the price of low energy bulbs falling (B&Q was giving them away to customers in London last week) the payback will be swift.

But in the kitchen and the bathroom we’ve got a problem. Both rooms use 12V 20W halogen bulbs. They create a beautiful bright environment but then that’s hardly surprising as there are eight in the bathroom and more than 20 in the kitchen.

Each bulb has its own transformer tucked into the ceiling that reduces the mains voltage down to 12V - which when added to the inefficiency of the bulb itself creates an energy sapping double whammy. If they are all switched on the electricity meter clicks over at around 700W.

There is a low energy equivalent in the form of an array of ultra-bright white LED lights neatly packaged into the same ceiling snug fitting. We’ve been trailing a couple over the last week.

The good news is that these new bulbs generate zero heat and consume almost no power. Less than 1W each in fact. In a different configuration you could probably power them from a small battery.

The bad news is that they cost £4 each and are more like torchlights than domestic lights. They don’t have the warm hue of halogen, and aren’t as bright or as uniform.

So we're sticking with halogen. Unless you've got a bright idea.

Labels: technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:46 PM

  2007 UK tech investment Tech investment activity in the UK was up in 2007 according to analysis released by corporate finance house Acendent.

Both the value of the funds invested (£894m – up 27 per cent) and the number of deals (242 – up 39 per cent) saw strong growth. Beneath the headlines managing director Stuart Knight pulled out some trends.

Almost £1billion
Deal value failed to hit the £1bn threshold after confidence softened in the second half of the year and many VCs slowed the pace of their investment

Shared risk
Levels of syndication spiked during the year – perhaps indicating a loss of confidence - but overall 63 per cent of deals involved more than one investor.

Hot or not?
Semi/opto (£178m) and cleantech (£171m) were hot, topping the investment list by value, followed by comms hardware (£77m) and other technologies (£101m). Comms Services (£17m) and Software (£159m) experienced sharp declines.

More wireless deals
Funds committed to internet and wireless service companies were static at £168m. However the volume of deals still rose by 82 per cent to 69 companies, resulting in the average deal size almost halving.

Regional differences
In 2007, more companies were funded in the North than in Cambridge but the latter received more than double the amount of money. London based companies received the lion’s share of investors’ money and time – 27 per cent of the funds and 33 per cent of deals.

Private investor emerges
13 per cent of the deals Ascendant tracks were funded by private investors or a syndicate of private investors and a VC working together.

Labels: technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 12:31 PM

  spyPhone With our whole lives available for pretty much everyone with an internet connection, it’s no surprise to find people are becoming wary of what they publish online with four in five people saying that they felt unsafe publishing their mobile phone number on social networking sites.

The survey by Mobyko – a client of Custard PR, one of our sister companies – also revealed that mobile phones have also made it more tempting to check our partner’s lives and brilliantly, one in ten of us actually look at stranger’s mobile phones when travelling on tubes and busses.

Quite why people would want to know what time a complete stranger is getting home for dinner is beyond me – the inane and often annoying conversations from the yoofs on buses is quite enough.

Labels: after work, technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:28 AM

  Wadds Tech PR blog goes mobile We’ve been encouraged to join Mippin's beta service and gone mobile. Point your mobile device at the mobile version of Wadds’ Tech PR blog. Neat eh?

We’ve not made any changes to the site, nor done any additional coding. Instead Mippin sucks in content from RSS feeds on the web and optimises it into a perfect format for a mobile phone screen.

Be very excited. As a publisher I can deliver content via a mobile channel without any changes to my existing publishing infrastructure.

Mippin currently serves ads on its own populated pages and will add ads to third party publisher owned material with an explicit opt-in on a revenue share basis.

The tools used to mobilise Wadds' Blog will become publicly available soon so the hope is that a high number of publishers take advantage of them, creating a mobile eco-system.

Update: you can link directly to the mobile blog at mippin.com/waddsblog.

Labels: blogger, technology

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 6:27 PM

  Living up to Skype hype You know that you’ve cracked it as a blogger when people pitch stories to you (mostly rubbish) and send you kit to review. A pair of PAYG 3 Skypephones from the gang at 3mobilebuzz loaded with £30 credit is the best bit of kit that I’ve been sent to date.

Two months on and 3mobilebuzz has done a good job. The blogosphere is awash with favourable reviews. And little wonder: the 3 Skypephone is a nice bit of kit. Here are five reasons that I’m going to keep using mine.

1. Mobile TV: this is the first time I have experienced mobile TV for more than 10 seconds without the picture breaking into black blocks and the audio failing. It works.

The screen may be tiny and the speaker audio poor (it’s a lot better with a headset) but it really is bloody amazing. £0.50 gets you access a dozen or so channels for a day including BBC1, BBC News 24, ITV1, Nickledon and FHM for £2.00 for a much as you can watch during a month.

2. Skype calls: VoIP has been available as a mobile application for GSM and 3G phones for 18 months or so. 3 has taken the pain from the consumer and pre-baked the Skype application on the handset.

Skype-to-Skype calls are free, but you can’t make low cost Skype out calls to non-Skype users. Instead you’ll have to dial out via the 3 network (12p per minute). Likewise, and perhaps the one failing of the device, calls to a Skype account won’t terminate on the phone. Expect to be connected to voicemail rather than the handset.

The audio quality on Skype calls is excellent. Either the Skype service has been hardened since eBay acquired it or the 3 service has yet to be loaded with users. Either way it’s persuaded me to dust down my Skype account and reload the client on my PC.

3. Mobile broadband: connect the phone to your PC (USB to mini-USB) or via bluetooth, load the drivers to configure the 3 Skypephone as a modem and you can access the Internet on your PC at 3G data speeds. It’s workable for email via a corporate VPN and excellent for regular web browsing.

4. Photos: the 3 Skypephone phone has a two mega pixel camera that takes great photos. The colour and contrast balance is spot-on and superior to the HPC or Nokia phones that I normally use. I’ve chucked a load up on Flickr if you want to check out the quality.

5. Design: the 3 Skypephone is a great piece of well thought out, almost elegant design. It’s slim and it’s sleek. The volume, camera and application buttons are all embedded in the side. The battery casing is fixed with a magnet. The menu is simple but functional. Maybe I’ve been using business mobile phones for too long.

Labels: blogger, technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:45 AM

  Domestic dedicated servers I met the marketing director of an internet hosting firm on Friday. Domain registration and hosting is a market that has commoditised over the last decade with vendors differentiating themselves through added value products and customer service.

The next growth opportunity lies in dedicated servers for the consumer market, where users can store all their audio, photos, video and document files remotely, rather than on a home PC, improving personal security, eliminating the need for backup and providing access from any location.

At first, the idea of leasing a server in a datacentre with a connection into the UK's internet backbone and mirrored back-up sounds over the top. But centralising personal data in this way makes a lot of sense.

I've struggled to set up home networks, media servers and a secure back-up system. And after all it is exactly the model that is commonplace in the corporate market where users connect to a server via a VPN irrespective of location.

I'm going to be placing an order.

Labels: technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:07 PM

  Google page skank Google’s slogan – ‘Don’t be evil’ took another bashing today as rumours surfaced about how the search engine giant has been fiddling with its search results in order to please advertisers.

The rumours began following Google’s apparent revised algorithm which penalised sites associated with buying and selling links. While those sites’ toolbar scores dropped, it did not affect its actual search ranking.

This has lead some commentators to suggest that Google “are manipulating public and advertiser opinion”. Google has hardly done its brand any favours in recent times and this looks like another company struggling to balance ethics with profit.

Labels: media, social media, technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 6:15 PM

  Pandora's box slams shut Fans of internet radio have received a personalised letter from Pandora's founder, Tim Wintergreen, confirming that Pandora will be shut off for any listeners accessing it from a UK IP address by mid-month.

The US is now the only country where ad-supported online radio can continue; all other countries are bankrupting music web applications like Pandora through huge unaffordable licensing fees.

Update: Techcrunch has outlined a means of using US registered proxy IP addresses to enable access to Pandora from outside the US.

Labels: after work, social media, technology

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:56 AM

  Facebook faces backlash Many are talking about 2008 being the year Facebook feels the backlash from users.

After riding the storm following the palaver with Beacon, Facebook now must deal with the criticism levelled at it following its banning of Robert Scobleizer Scoble from using the social networking site for violating their terms of use.

Facebook’s reaction will be telling as to how they position themselves in the future. Will they continue to ban Scoble for flouting their rules or will they give in to a guy who has 5000 friends on the site and a high level of influence.

Does anyone care apart from a handful of bloggers?

Labels: after work, blogger, social media, technology

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 3:27 PM

  Fat king coal How depressing was it to read this morning that Medway Council in Kent has passed a vote to build the UK’s first coal-fuelled power station for more than two decades, despite 9,000 local petitioners against and a major Greenpeace demonstration.

This on the day that oil touched $100-a-barrel. Reverting to cheaper fuels at the expense of the environment is surely no long term solution to energy needs.

As our own coal mines are limited to domestic coal production there’ll be a deep carbon footprint to bring in coal from Australia or China. How are we expected to set a positive example to China and India - the two future carbon superpowers - if we can’t get our own greenhouse in order?

Labels: after work, technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 3:24 PM

  Electronic ticketing A biometric passport should be a universal form of identification should it not? A British passport may “allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance” but as far a BA check-in facility is concerned it isn’t sufficient as a means of identification.

When I presented my passport at Newcastle airport yesterday the machine grumped and asked me to key in my booking reference. I didn’t have it so I cancelled the transaction and used my credit card as identification instead. No further information required and boarding pass delivered.

Airlines have invested heavily in paperless ticketing systems over the last decade and electronic check-in now the norm. I was airside within 8 minutes yesterday. But passport identification aside it could have been even quicker. I could have checked in online from home or better still I could have been flying from a Japanese airport where mobile phone barcodes are now the norm.

BA and BAA are both reported to be investigating mobile barcode check-in. The technology is already used in the UK for ticketing events and by Chiltern Railways.

No passport required.

Labels: technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:49 AM

  It ain't necessarily so While people have been looking back at 2007, we’ve been peering back a little further – to the Tomorrow’s World Annual 1970. OK, we all know that intelligent computers couldn’t hijack their own space ships by 2001 as was predicted, but the Annual did throw up some incredibly optimistic forecasts.

The Prediction: Worldwide ban on professional boxing, 1978
The Reality: Ricky Hatton might have been grateful for such a ban this month when he was left bleeding on the canvas

The Prediction: Birth control pill for men, 1979
The Reality: We’re still waiting….and so are the ladies

The Prediction: Last British foxhound pack disbanded through lack of game and country, 1985
The Reality: A relatively recent phenomenon, with hundreds of Parliamentary hours used up

The Prediction: Worldwide ban on petrol-driven automobiles, 1985
The Reality: If only. Meanwhile, our planet dies…

The Prediction: Average national working week 22 hours, 1993
The Reality: Now there’s an idea…as it was, we were so poorly evolved in 1993 that even Sheffield Wednesday reached two cup finals!

The Prediction: World's first international city completed under Antarctic ice with a population of half a million, 1998
The Reality: LSD was quite prevalent in 1970, I guess…

The Prediction: Semi-voluntary euthanasia at the age of 60 encouraged by Department of Health, 2000
The Reality: I could offer some suggestions.

The Prediction: Compulsory birth control instituted, 2010
The Reality: If anything, the birth rate has fallen in the UK in recent years.

The Prediction: First three floating cities completed round coasts of Britain, 2016
The Reality: Could be possible, but where?

Labels: technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:21 AM

  A year in tech PR The end of 2007 is nigh - and inevitably time to reflect on 2007. We’ve put our heads together and come up with the tech PR highs and lows of the year.

(1) Most important development in social media
Facebook appeals to everyone, but is the next best thing around the corner? After all no one saw it coming.

(2) Biggest disappointment
Twitter – don’t care what anyone says it’s bollocks. Live life, don’t spend it broadcasting updates to you mates.

(3) High
Borkowski’s Wispa campaign. Real genius and proof that social media can deliver a return on investment. Also a slap in the face for agencies that didn’t have the balls to get stuck in and experiment earlier (us included).

(4) Low
TWL dies a death - favourite stories include the Richard Millington campaign (whatever your views on it, it was bloody funny); the day in the life of ITPR and the Flackenhack awards. Fingers crossed for a summer part in 2008.

(5) Biggest cock up
Facebook’s handling of Beacon, but not Beacon itself which actually might work in fulfilling the huge revenue potential of a social network. Is the traditional media running scared of the new kid on the block and looking to make an example of it?

(6) Predictions for 2008
Facebook will work out a way to monetise its user base, or it will die. The rise in more niche social networks will also become more obvious. The launch of Saga Zone and success of Realbuzz.com reflects Long Tail theory.

(7) Next big thing?
We said Twitter was bollocks - but with increasing demands on free time, micro-blogging - and subsequently micro-content will become more prevalent.

(8) Most important tech development
Broadband availability in the UK is almost 100 per cent. Almost all the mainstream broadcasters now have a flavour of over the top TV which is surely a stepping stone to IPTV.

Who’s next? Drew, Stephen, Stuart, Ian, Ged, James, Will what do you think?

Labels: media, social media, technology

  Permalink | 4 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:54 PM

  Look ma, I’m on Sky News! Last week our very own Tim Hoang took part in an interview with Sky News about Facebook’s apology for its Beacon application.

The key issues Yorkshire-boy covered about Facebook and Beacon were that:

1) Beacon was a PR disaster more than anything else

2) Facebook and the social media space are still young and inevitably are prone to cock-ups. We're all learning

3) The average Facebook user doesn't actually know about Beacon, and, anecdotally those that do actually like its targeted approach

Labels: blogger, media, PR, social media, technology

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:13 AM

  Event report: NMK – Clients in the wild Last night both myself and Wadds went to NMK’s Clients in the Wild seminar (disclosure: I work both for Rainier PR and NMK) in Piccadilly Circus.

I’d encourage anyone who is interested in social media whether you work in PR, marketing or in-house to attend these things (whether NMK or These4Walls or other events) not just to listen to the three talking heads of early 90's boyband lookalike Drew Benvie (the first blog I ever subscribed to), Will McInnes from Nixonmcinnes and Sarah Ogden from Midnight Communications, but also to network afterwards. You end up learning so much.

The debate began with the startling news that we were no longer in control of the message. Whilst hardly a revelation along the lines of string theory or Newton’s laws of gravity – it was a good place to start and a good place for Will to sound off about how screwed up the PR industry is. Will’s argument wasn’t whether PR can control the message (has it ever been able to?) but more with how the PR industry demonstrates value in PR 1.0, let alone PR 2.0.

My main bug bear with the debate was that no one gave a sufficient answer to the question how do you measure influence? Mat Morrison, unfortunately not the 90s rap star who got a friend to do his community service but the Digital Planning Director for Porter Novelli showed me the model they used. It was a spider diagram showing how influencers are interconnected to their audiences though much like every other diagram couldn’t show influence just numbers.

Personally, like the panel, I think the measurement depends on the objectives of the client – they are the ones who pay the fees – if they think a feature in The Times would sell x amount of products then all the PR industry can do is advise – push back if unrealistic or help them achieve it. And ditto if they want to target bloggers. Simon Collister asked whether we should scrap the way we ‘do’ PR in this new world. I’d be inclined to disagree- certainly the tactics we (and many other companies) use for our clients still works and is profitable. And as Sarah rightly pointed out, PR tactics should include social media as part of the strategy (depending on the objectives) not just tagged on to existing campaigns. What we have is good it just needs to evolve quicker with the change in the environment.

Most of the more interesting discussions came after the actual seminar with Adam Parker from webitpr elaborating on an earlier point he made about the Northern Rock fiasco. Adam asked why the directors of the company didn’t engage with the public and communicate the huge sums of money they donate to charity (5 per cent of all profit apparently) by visiting local branches.

Ged Carroll has written an excellent post about the event which I urge you to check out.

Labels: after work, blogger, media, PR, social media, technology

  Permalink | 9 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:25 PM

  Lead mob After the Led Zepplin flashmob post on Monday, there’s been a bit of discussion in our office and on the blog as to flashmobbing’s worth. It was heavily advertised and perhaps committed the ultimate viral sin - it was just a little bit too organised. Those who attended were left unimpressed – the timing was lousy and there were more journalists than participants.

Labels: media, social media, technology

  Permalink | 4 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:38 PM

  La Donna é Mobile There’s been much debate recently about the relevance of Twitter and whether there is any point to microblogging technology. Is there a big enough audience for it? How much information can you really convey in 160 characters? And who wants to be pestered throughout the day with meaningless updates? We are in the world of Web 2.0! Shouldn’t we be leaving video voicemails, sending picture messages and flying space cars?

Well new research has just come out that we are texting more than we ever have done. In fact this year text messaging is up 25 per cent on 2006, hitting 1.2 billion a week according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA). This suggests that all those doomsayers criticising the potential of Twitter (me included) should realise that text messaging was in many ways out of date before it even started.

Before we all start insisting on 3D phones, e-mail watches, etc we have to remember that we are the minority: there’s still a huge a market out there for simple communication channels. L8erz

Labels: blogger, social media, technology

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 3:10 PM

  Flackenhack video, tips for hacks and flogging a dead horse If you watch Porter Novelli’s Flackenhack awards video on You Tube you’ll learn that Phil Muncaster never has less than three women in his view at any one time, Andy Smith looks like a grown up Shaggy from Scooby Doo and Anthony Mayfield wears a vest. And you might even spot TWL himself. Worth watching.

My old blogging pal and travel writer Mark Hodson has been in touch with a top ten list of rants from PRs, intended as a response to his previous top Ten Tips for PRs. There are no surprises but it’s worth a read nonetheless.

Thanks to Paul Wooding for hopefully bringing the debate around Gareth Davies’s PR Week generalist versus specialist letter to a close today. It’s turned into a cyclical argument that has got all concerned some attention but I don’t think there’s anything left to be said on the topic. We’ve got a lot of respect for Paul - he did a cracking job as master of ceremonies at the Flackenhacks gig last week.

Labels: after work, agency life, blogger, media, PR, social media, technology

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 3:49 PM

  Weight watcher EDS has developed a system that will warn shoppers when they’ve put unhealthy items into their trolley. I’m still failing to grasp the point of this tool. Can dieters not read food labels for themselves? Do they really need an electronic device to tell them something’s bad for them?

Labels are on the packaging as well as price – would we expect a gadget on the trolley to say “hang on, mate, that’s a bit pricey, what’ll your wife say?”

Labels: after work, technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:35 PM