There have been so many articles in recent years about why companies should be harnessing Social Media – most of these articles have been written by industry professionals like myself attempting to secure business. These articles often talk about the benefits for lead generation, developing online communities and securing brand reputation – all entirely acceptable and credible reasons for looking to integrate Social Media into a larger marketing and communications strategy. So, with this in mind I’ve decided to take an alternate approach and look at some industries and situations where Social Media simply might not be appropriate. Read more on Are there certain industries that shouldn’t be using Social Media?…

Read more on Are there certain industries that shouldn’t be using Social Media?…

How many Twitter hashtags have we seen hijacked in the past 12 months? Only last month Waitrose fell foul to the Twitter trend of “bashtagging” – users flooding a brand created hashtag with negative comments against the originator.

Last week however the tables were turned on the mischievous Twitterverse as a charity gave users a taste of their own medicine. Campaigners for providing the third world with clean water, “WATERisLIFE“, decided that Twitter users in the #FirstWorldProblems hashtag were taking their lifestyle for granted, and decided to use social media to address the issue.

The Social Media Watchdog blog Social Slurp picked up on the campaign last week and explained that the Twitter hashtag #FirstWorldProblems was being used to mock users of their petty concerns that they have in  ”first world” countries. For example, tweets included: Read more on Charity Hijacks Twitter Hashtag For Good #FirstWorldProblems…

A wall post complaining about the cost and quality of an Odeon cinema experience that appeared on the official Odeon Facebook Page on Friday has generated an astonishing 122,468 Likes and 10,408 comments. To make matters worse, the complaint has come on the UK summer bank holiday when the Odeon’s social media team appear to have been “on holiday” and have not responded to the complaint.

The  disgruntled cinema-goer left a 466 word complaint entitled “Dear Odeon” and criticised the cinema company for overpriced tickets, food and drink, lazy customer service at the refreshments kiosk and their movie being disrupted by the cinema screen next them showing The Dark Knight Rises (the films booming sound effects being audible through the walls). To round of his complaint, the Facebook user scoffed at the anti-piracy notice shown at the beginning of the film promising that the cinema experience was considerably better than a pirated download. Read more on Odeon complaint generates over 120k Likes and 10k comments in 4 days…

Saturday (23rd June) would have been the 100th birthday of English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist, Alan Turing.

Without Turing’s contribution to the advancement of computer science most of us would be sat at empty desks, just day-dreaming about a tool that could change the world of business and leisure forever. Read more on History of Computers; From the Abacus to the iPad [Infographic]…

Arsenal topped the Twitter Social Media league with nearly 1.5 million Twitter followers (also the 3rd highest worldwide for a football club) in May. However, having the most followers doesn’t necessarily equate to being the best. Manchester City were this month’s champions both on the pitch and in the social media world.

City collected their second “Best of the Month” award this season in Freestyle Interactive‘s  monthly Premier League Social Media Stats infographic series. Read more on Arsenal king of Twitter followers but not engagement [infographic]…

English Premier League football clubs are starting to ramp up their Social Media activity as they begin to gain more followers. In the past few months our data has showed that clubs are quickly gaining more and more Twitter followers and Facebook Likes every month. Clubs have recognised this rapid growth and responded with a higher volume of tweets and updates in order to ensure this growth doesn’t slow. Read more on Chelsea FC win ‘Best of the Month’ in Football Social Media [infographic]…

In the past month EPL football clubs have amassed 3.3 million new Facebook Likes, 342,109 new Twitter followers and nearly 10,000 tweets. This works out as a 12% growth for Twitter followers and 9% for Facebook fans and it doesn’t like it will decline any time soon. With this in mind, who performed best in the last month?

The below infographic comes from Digital Agency Freestyle Interactive, who have been producing monthly EPL Social Media reports since November.

Read more on Premier League clubs add 3.3m Likes, 342k Twitter followers & nearly 10k tweets in March…

Which football team is ruling the Social Media roost in this month’s EPL infographic? This February we have added a few new metrics and treats to the infographic, including: ‘How many people are talking about’ stats, who has lost Twitter followers, who has the Premier League’s fastest growing Facebook Page this season and what has been the best Social Media campaign of the month?

Importantly, EPL clubs surpassed a combined total of 50,000,000 Facebook Likes which just goes to show the sheer size of the league globally. However, it should be noted that Manchester United make up just under half of this number with an amazing 22 million Likes. Twitter in comparison came to a combined figure of 3.2 million Followers – but this has grown by 69% since the start of the season (+1.3 million new followers).

Read more on English Premier League clubs surpass 50 million combined Facebook Likes [infographic]…

This month we have the second infographic produced by UK Digital Agency – Freestyle Interactive – for English Premier League clubs. With Social Media becoming increasingly influential amongst clubs and players, the Midlands based agency has promised to track the growth as well as highlight any creative examples of fan engagement. Some key ‘take aways’ include the combined leagues Facebook fans approaching 50 million, Manchester United are the only team without Twitter and Arsenal’s 360 Panorama Facebook app.

Read more on Which English Premier League club is winning at Social Media in January? [infographic]…

It’s been a year of highs and lows for football clubs on Social Media, we’ve seen everything from player’s Twitter accounts being hacked, managers banning Social Media and Tweets getting players into serious trouble. Yet, we’ve also seen Manchester United break the 20 million Facebook fans mark, Manchester City continue to come up with creative fan engagement strategies and even the advent of the “Social Media Stadium“. Read more on Premier League social media stats – December [infographic]…