Would you buy your social media influence?

If you are feeling lonely on Twitter, with only a handful of followers, or not feeling enough fans like you on Facebook, you could consider buying more friends. There are various services out there offering to get you thousands of fans with prices going up to $4,000 for 10,000 fans.

How much would you pay to increase your social network influence? And who would you buy? Read More »

The fallout from the AOL acquisition of Techcrunch continues as former writer, Sarah Lacy, launches a news site, called PandoDaily, which is being dubbed “TechCrunch 2.0 by some.

PandoDaily, which will focus almost exclusively on tech start-ups, launches today and is backed by a number of investors including TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington, who left the site he founded in September unhappy (but richer) after the earlier sale to AOL. Read More »

It’s an interesting contradiction that the further technology advances, the simpler and more instinctive it becomes to use.

Take the addictive interface functionality of an iPad or iPhone, for example. Watching people using it with simple, intuitive finger movements and hand gestures, it makes me wonder just how instinctive digital interactivity can become. (I mean, even cats are using it for Chrissakes. Such as these two cool customers, chillaxing with fish on an iPad, licking each other’s ears lazily and listening to rude music.) Read More »

In Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, I managed to get 5 minutes with WPP CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell, and asked him how digital advertising budgets were shaping up for 2012, and where marketers should be focussing their efforts. Read More »

New Look the band, not the high street shop, are Brooklyn based musicians who have just commissioned directing duo Tim & Joe to create the video for their latest single Nap on the bow.

The directors have used the Xbox Kinect to record the bands movement which gives an incredible 3D effect.  The introduction of the Kinect to the market has meant that this high-tech equipment is available to the masses making it possible for hackers to break the system and reap the benefits of such technology for creative purposes. Read More »

New ad for Samsung Galaxy S II shows urban scene kids with delusions of creative greatness (who are actually baristas, apparently) queuing for the latest iPhone. It goes on to show people outside the queue who already have a great phone with 4G and a big, bright screen. Read More »

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 »

You may have heard the news that Facebook has partnered with more than a dozen music services, making for richer musical experiences for the social networking site’s millions of members. But are you listening yet?

The top three favourites so far are Spotify, MOG and Rdio. Other services in the mix include TuneIn Radio, iHeartRadio, Audiovroom, earbits, Deezer, SoundCloud, Rhapsody, Vevo, Jelli, Songza and Slacker, among others. All have been introduced as part of Facebook’s Open Graph approach, that aims to feed music, movies, TV, news, books, media and something called “lifestyle apps” into the social mix. All was revealed at the f8 conference back in September when Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage, alongside music darling Spotify. Read More »

News, views and reviews now travel at incredible velocity online. This video reviews how social news can have a profound effect on anyone because the public has already made up its mind on the issue before you’ve even responded to it.

Think England football captain John Terry, the claimed cyber-lynching of a US Presidential candidate, the BlackBerry outage? Read More »

The internet has changed the way we communicate and how we consume content.  We are no longer just passive consumers of media – we want to immerse ourselves in it.

And, thanks to relentless innovation in creative technology, consumers are certainly getting the opportunity to do exactly that. Whereas TV is restricted to people engaging on a passive viewing-only level, digital has the potential to engage on so many more dynamic and interactive levels. Read More »