Daily Archives: 11 April, 2011

The New Yorker gives Facebook fans exclusive access to Franzen story

Great idea from the New Yorker. In an effort to boost engagement with its Facebook fan page it is putting some top notch exclusive content up that you can only access if you like its page.

In the first instance it is from an essay by the author of The Corrections and Freedom, Jonathan Franzen.  Now that is going to be a hit. Read More »

The challenge of shifting from political campaigning to creating social community

Alan B'stard is in favour of AVBarack Obama launched his 2012 Election campaign last week and no surprise to see that his team chose to do so online. The US President’s 2008 campaign signaled a dramatic – and social – change to the way politicians campaign for office.

What will be interesting is to see how Obama’s team move the conversation forward, this time round with a tested candidate who’s revealed over the past couple of years that he is human and fallible, after all. What they and their supporters did prove last time around is that social can play a dramatic role in motivating communities of millions. Read More »

Has Twitter abandoned small businesses?

One of the most common questions I get asked when delivering my talks is.. How Do Twitter make their money? Well up until now they really have not been making a lot of money. They have raised approx $360m in funding which presumably will sustain their business whilst they develop their products. Read More »

Facebook to launch in China as it cuts deal with Baidu

Protests in Egypt but unlikely in ChinaFacebook is reported to be planning to launch a standalone Chinese service, its second attempt, in a partnership with China’s biggest search engine Baidu.

According to reports the deal follows meetings between CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Baidu CEO Robin Li and could help Facebook reach its billion user target.  Read More »

iPad Cookies Crumble: 80% conversion undercounting

How many people do you know that use an Apple iPhone, an iPad or iTouch? Probably quite a few. Figures estimate that there are now 130 million users of the Apple iOS platform (15 million iPads alone) that powers all these formats.

As a result advertisers have to create campaigns that work across all these new devices, but there’s a significant problem. Read More »

Beer brand Desperados attempts to ‘do a Tippex’ in YouTube ads

Desperados: her arm comes out of the frame!

Did the Tippex YouTube ad rock your world? Well, this one is supposedly going to do the same (although, for me, somewhat less so than the Tippex ad).

It’s for the tequila-flavoured beer brand called Desperados and, like the Tippex ad, it plays around with the familiar YouTube video page in a nice way. In this case, you’re invited to a party which is so … I want to say ‘jumping’ but is that what parties did in the 1950s? … that it actually cracks open walls – and the YouTube video page.

Read More »