Are you partial to a bit of peer pressure? Social media experts around the globe think so. Companies like Facebook are staking their future on the idea that a recommendation from a friend is far more trustworthy than one from a flashy marketing message. Social media is now playing a huge role in peoples buying decisions, even affecting choices people make in their day to day lives.  This got me thinking, what would Twitter have me do this Christmas if social consensus guided my decisions?

Read more on If Twitter ran your Christmas Day, this is how it would look……

I was recently asked about the effects of social media and public outrage. Specifically, the question was around Jeremy Clarkson and his ‘oh so controversial’ comments on the BEEB last week. You know, the comments that were definitely nothing to do with shifting copies of a Christmas DVD.

Anyway, let’s paint the picture of how the average outrage works in social media. Read more on Social Media Outrage and Twitribution – The short lifespan of a trending topic…

I’m always amazed at the liberal view people have regarding social media moderation. The consensus around the globe seems to be that you can say what you like on social platforms and that a brand should just suck it up and leave it sitting there as some sort of homage to freedom of speech.

Now, I’m all for intelligent criticism. I truly am. If you’ve had a horrible holiday experience and you’re not getting anywhere through normal channels, why not take to a company’s Facebook page to vent your spleen. However, that’s based on the assumption that all criticism is intelligent and well thought out. I can tell you first hand it’s not. Often the comments left on brand pages are poorly spelt, pay little attention to grammar and barely have a point other than to cause a bit of a stir.

Read more on Dealing with the Jeremy Clarksons of social…

This morning I noticed Google have started to try and make sense of the disorganised world of Facebook brand pages. If you punch a brand name, like say, Nike, and accompany it with Facebook, you should find something like this appears.

Read more on Google attempt organising Facebook brand pages with amusing consequences…

I think everyone is being a bit mean to Google. Yeah, that’s right. I think the community of social media / digital analysts have been very rash in their assessment of Google+ and its social offering.

Google+ is the new kid in the playground and everyone knows they’ve got exceedingly rich parents; this is a back-foot start straight from the off. No one wants to focus on the functionality, no one wants to talk about where it fits and no one wants to let it find its feet. Read more on Google+ is being bullied by the popular kids……

Blogger outreach is an interesting concept that in theory should work but often doesn’t. The idea is that brands approach bloggers and ask them to write about their products, services or initiatives. In an ideal world, this should be un-incentivised. The reality might be different, but the idea is that the opinion of a blogger, a web promoted authority on a subject, will be worth more than the opinion of a journalist or a glitzy write up on the company website.

It’s a great concept and if it’s managed correctly, the publicity can be fantastic. It doesn’t always work out that well. There have been many high profile examples of blogger outreach disasters. Probably the most prominent case of bad blogger outreach was the catastrophic failure of Facebook’s PR agency Burson-Marsteller. They thought it would be a good idea to offer payments to a prominent tech blogger in return for some negative press about Google and their disregard for privacy. Bad move. Bloggers don’t play by prison rules, the man approached grassed on the PR agency and let the world’s media take the story and dirty the good name of Facebook.

Read more on Arsenal FC see value in transparency with major blogger outreach coup…

LinkedIn have been beavering away over the past few months making subtle improvements to their channel. The two stand out innovations are the ‘Ads by LinkedIn Members’ and the company status update.

One of the most pressing conundrums in B2B social marketing is working out ways to seed the content you’re creating into places where people are genuinely interested and grateful to receive it. Creating compelling content with the right company isn’t the problem; trying to share it in an organic way without looking like you’re spamming is. The process is time consuming and very manual.

Read more on Has Business to Business social media finally been given a home that works?…

Manchester United have struck a deal with Sapient Nitro to become their global digital agency and as part of that deal, word has it they’re going to create a social media platform that will allow the club to engage directly with their global online fan base of nearly 660 million.

Ignoring the numbers, because I think they are nonsense, the concept is very interesting and very forward thinking.

Read more on Glory Glory Man Utd: Can they beat Facebook at its own game?…

Facebook has always been about driving engagement, the problem they’ve had over the past few years is that their mechanism for engagement hasn’t gone much further than the inflexible ‘Like’ button, a share, or, if you’re lucky, a comment or two. This was great while it lasted, but it did open brands pages up for social media black hat techniques.

We’ve seen a well-known socially irrelevant brand up their likes by 5,000 in the space of a week and take unprecedented engagement from people, that if you investigate, either work for their PR agency, or are praising the price of a product they’re ineligible to purchase.
All very naughty and not in the spirit of organic brand growth. Read more on Has Facebook alienated dull brands?…