Interesting couple of posts kicking around on how the time of the social media consultant is (pretty much) over. Shel Israel puts it this way, that a “decade of social media disruption is now coming to an end” and because of that many of those one time consultants are now taking full-time jobs.

It certainly feels that way. All you have to do is think about the news agenda in recent weeks with all those super injunction stories or  Lionel Messi racking up seven million Facebook Likes in seven hours. It is big and it is global and it all shows how far it has come and how far we as a society accept and understand it. Social media is no longer a mystery it is commonplace. The days of the bandwagon are over. Read More »

Most of the top global brands have Facebook pages but many are only in English despite having people from all over the world following them.  For most under 20 year olds in the developed world*, Facebook is a significant part of their daily routine.

As this generation grows up, Facebook will continue to be with them and if brands want to be part of their lives, they will have to address their existing and would-be followers intelligently and in their own language. Otherwise, they are in danger of missing the point like Booker prize winner J G Farrell’s Padre who didn’t see why the Bible “should have been written in Hebrew or Greek when English was the obvious language”. Read More »

Consumer electronics firm Samsung is moving into the business of financial advice after it tweeted telling people that if they hadn’t yet paid their rent they should use the money instead to buy a camera.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want financial advice from consumer electronics firms.  I’m not sure they have my best interests are heart. Encouraging people to buy more stuff instead of putting a roof of their head strikes me as, I don’t know, borderline idiotic? Read More »

So here’s a question, do you think that a broadly similar service can successfully take on Twitter at its own game?

That must be the question that Chinese internet firm Sina is asking as reports emerge that it is preparing to launch its own very popular microblogging platform Sina Weibo in the US shortly. Read More »

The latest top ten Global Viral Video Chart is real contrast. Topping the list is the ad for next instalment of the Call of Duty Modern Warfare franchise, but then at number two is a moving ad for survivors of skin cancer who share their stories. Read More »