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Rhys Isterix
What a week. Not only did I have to endure a half hour ‘debate’ (I use that word loosely) from ‘experts’ (I’ll use that word even more loosely) on the future of social media without any mention of social behemoth and often underrated YouTube, but I had to control my inner (or ever-growing outer) geek and the excitement that filled me in the build up to F8.
INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.
INFLUENCERS is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment.
The film attempts to understand the…
(Source: charris)
Keeping The #hashtag
I have a gripe to make. Yes, a gripe. Surprised? :)
A lot of people still don’t get the basics of twitter and i think that can really spoil the conversation. Now, there is not that much to learn but i guess many of the people who use twitter are not interested in learning the ins and outs of the language. But then, that sounds a bit weird. If you were going to live in Germany, you’d learn German right? Twitter is very simple but i think there are many basics that should be explained more clearly. This is partly twitters fault, as there should really be clearer links to explain what hashtags and RT’s actually are - it might even be worth including in th welcome stream or part of a suggestions box.
This leads me neatly onto ye olde #hashtags. So what the rarse is a #hashtag anyway? Well it’s metadata, a way of tagging a conversation so that it can be easily searched for. If you want to try searching for some #hashtags just to test it out then go to http://search.twitter.com (remember when this was called summize anyone?) and search for a popular tag like #followfriday, #habitatintern, #tuttle, #liesboystell, #3wordsaftersex - the list goes on.
Using hashtags helps to create a potentially global conversation between people who are not necessarily friends. it’s a great thing.But in order for it to build momentum everyone must be using that tag on their replies otherwise it won’t trend on sites such as twitscoop which helps to create a snowball effect as people who are not necessarily involved with the conversation start to pick up on the topic.
So… next time, if you reply to someone who has #hashtag’d their tweet please please please remember to add the tag on your tweet. If you use tweetdeck then there is even an option in the settings to auto-add a tag! No excuses! ;)
#hashtagyourlife
when bad habits happen at habitat
Habitat Habitat Habitat, where art thou Habitat? This is a question that i’ve been pondering for quite a while. Weeks in fact. Ever since they were found out with regards to the #habitatintern incident they seem to have gone quiet. Either they are hiding away in their stylish laires or they don’t have the staff to continue the conversation. So why enter into one in the first place?
I know there have been several articles about this already mainly with an eye to discussing what not to do as a brand on twitter. But what do you do if you’ve reached the bottom of the social bottle like our dear @HabitatUK? You get help!
The worst thing you can probably do is go quiet as this makes you look guilty as sin. Silence implies consent, that’s an old latin saying, and so if you do nothing then you are accepting everything that people are saying about you and it’s a cheap shot to blame the intern. ____holics blame everyone but themselves. The sensible thing to do is admit your faults, go on Jeremy Kyle if need be but essentially show your commitment and get on board someone to educate and rebuild trust for the brand.
I don’t know when or if we’ll ever see Habitat back in social media, they’re welcome back but if they’re waiting for the storm to blow over then they best know that storm will freeze hell before the twitter community forget or let this go.
Use us, don’t abuse us.
For more information then look at the fabulous @DarenBBC’s twitter page who is spearheading the search for the #habitatintern in a bid to help the fired intern or if no intern exists then advise Habitat for their ill-advised error.
I promise…
…to actually write a blog about Social Media on Friday. Still deciding whether i should i should revamp www.rhyshowell.com and write my social media thoughts there. Plus i was going to write something about #habitatintern to as that’s put some wind into my sails. Hmmm… Think you can wait that long?
The Twittering Towns series is supported by the Comcast Town Design Showdown. Thousands of people created and submitted their apartments, and the judges have narrowed it down to four…
Lee Odden (@leeodden) is CEO of digital marketing agency TopRank Online Marketing and writes about search, social media & online PR at Online Marketing Blog.
The increasing demand…
Online Marketing - Why Everyone wants Swine Flu
Swine Flu is like so hot right now! Seriously, it’s amazing, it’s pandemic and as online marketing-PR-social media types we should all be in fear inspired! The one thing that we all hope for is that our content and campaigns will go viral - and it’s not something we can control (nor would we want).
Imagine if each time someone coughed on the tube you instantly thought of “Pepsi” or “Cillit Bang” instead of “Is that person Mexican Infected?!”. Once you have attained that certain and immediate response - an uncontrollable knee-jerk reaction in your every day ‘Joe Bloggs’ then you would have reached the cloud 9 of marketing (and probably be able to take the rest of the day off).
If you want to be better at what you do then keep a track of the flu (if you can) and see what you can learn. It’s only just launched but just look at the press it’s getting! Shame you can’t #hashtag a virus :(
