Shenanigans in Chamonix

So I was on holiday a few weeks ago. Well, I call it a holiday but I was actually doing some charity work for Camp Quality UK, running an activity holiday for young people with cancer in Chamonix, France.

It was an amazing week, but definitely one of those 'holidays' where you need a holiday to recover from the previous one (especially if you're responsible for a large group of people on a holiday in a foreign country).

One of the things I've tried to encourage the charity to do is to make more use of Social Media and Web 2.0 and it just so happened that the fact that one of the young people was anaspiring film maker really helped! So Murray (or Mr. Spielberg as we affectionately took to calling him) has produced this rather stunning documentary. At 14 years old he's certainly in the running for the youngest ever film director to win an Oscar!

The documentary runs to about 35 minutes in 4 parts and features yours truly as an MTV Cribs style presenter. Enjoy watching it and joining in the fun. If you fancy donating to the charity so that I can go on more holidays we can take more young people with cancer away on these amazing holidays, then you can do so here.

I'm thinking of writing a post on my experiences with the Camp Quality UK and how they are using Web 2.0 and Social Media to aid them in their cause, which I'll post week or so - any thoughts/links to help me out? Leave them in the comments section below!

Chamonix 2008 - Part 1/4




Chamonix 2008 - Part 2/4




Chamonix 2008 - Part 3/4




Chamonix 2008 - Part 4/4

Research on Twitter demographics from Hitwise

Sherrilynne Starkie posted a link on Twitter this morning to an article on Twitter demographics. Written by Bill Tancer from Hitwise and featured in Time magazine this week, the article gives the results of research into Twitter user profile data.

The research is interesting because (as Nick Burcher of Zed Media notes):

"There are a number of systems that allow analysis of what Twitter users are posting, but it is much harder to analyse who they are."

These are the key points about Twitter demographics from the Hitwise data:

• Males make up 63% of Twitterers
• California residents account for more than 57% of Twitter's visitors
• Twitter's largest age demographic is 35-to-44-year-olds who make up 25.9% of its users.
• 14.7% of Twitter visitors are type H03 a.k.a the "Stable Career," comprising a "collection of young and ethnically diverse singles living in big-city metros like Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Miami." The Stable Career tends to work in the arts and entertainment industry, drive small cars and espouse very liberal political views.
• 12.3% of Twitter's visitors are H01 a.k.a. the "Young Cosmopolitan," 40-somethings likely to drive a Prius, earn household incomes over $250,000 per year and also identify with very liberal politics.

It turns out that Twitter is not just 18-24 year olds using the service as a substitute for SMS texting (especially now Twitter has disabled certain SMS features). Older, professional audiences are key Twitter user demographics too, meaning that the service is more mainstream and more valuable (given the average spending power of users) than previously thought.

I also presume that the remaining 43% of Twitter users that don't reside in California must live in London or Brighton. Well, according to my Twitter stream anyway...

To Blip or not to Blip?

There's been quite a bit of buzz about Blip.fm recently. For those of you who don't know, Blip.fm is "a music sharing site where you post short messages (blips) with a track attached. The timeline builds up a story accompanied by music documenting your friends’ day. You play the timeline and have music on all day selected by your friends." (Hat tip: Becky McMichael)

You can even upload your own music and give people "props" if you enjoy a particular song they've blipped. You can also share your music on other sites, such as Last.fm and Twitter (check their FAQ to find out more). It's a great site which I'm sure - as more people join - will become an alternative, if not a direct competitor, to Last.fm.

But the ability to share what you're listening to on other sites - normally a definite plus point for emerging services - may actually threaten the success of Blip.fm. Some people have taken to cross-posting every single one of their blips to Twitter, meaning that some people's Twitter streams end up covered with muscial notes and Tinyurls to someone's Blip.fm stream.

This has annoyed a lot of people on Twitter, most notably Bobbie Johnson:

Sorry people - the bliprage has hit me. Please, no more ♫♪ LISTEN TO MY STATION ON COCK.FM!!!!! ♪♪

(Good luck with the move to San Francisco by the way Bobbie - hope it all goes well!)

The reason it annoys people? Tweeting every single one of your blips is spam. Twitter is a platform for conversations, for useful links and for interesting thoughts. Unfortunately, the majority of blips don't fall into any of these categories.

Blip.fm operates just like Twitter, meaning that you can follow other "DJs" and they can follow you back. You can also do @ replies, so you can get a conversation going with any contacts you make on there. The only reason that some people aren't using Blip.fm like Twitter is that the audience isn't there yet. No one is listening to what you have to say on Blip.fm, but by cross-posting to Twitter you instantly gain a much bigger audience.

But, unfortunately, the people who tweet every blip will find that their audience on Twitter will decrease - I've stopped following at least 3 people because of their blip spam.

It's an interesting example of where cross posting can go wrong and I'm sure (and hope) that Blip.fm won't fail because of this.

What are your thoughts on Blip.fm? A good service or do you still favour Last.fm? Do you tweet your blips?

If you fancy finding out about the music I listen to, you can add me as a favourite DJ at blip.fm/benrmatthews. I promise I won't spam you with 80s glam rock!

Taking a break from blogging...

There's quite a few subscribers to this blog now, so I thought it would only be polite to let you know that I'll be away next week and won't be blogging.

I'm away running a holiday for children with cancer in Chamonix, France. The charity I’m volunteering for is Camp Quality UK - their website is here and you can donate here.

Thanks guys and have a good week - just don't blog or tweet too much so that it doesn't take me long to catch up when I get back!

kthxbai...

Announcing the Harvest Twestival!

In the pub the other night, over a few beers (where all the best ideas happen), a group of Twitterers / footballing-wannabees came up with an idea for a tweetup, bringing together the disparate worlds of Karaoke, Twitter and the Harvest Festival.

The result? The Harvest Twestival!

The event will happen on 25 September in a mystery location in deepest darkest London (which means that we're still sorting out a venue...).

As well as meeting the faces behind the Twitter avatars (and checking out whether they really are as good looking as their online appearances), there'll be plenty of songs to be sung with karaoke classics and, while you're at it, do some good for the world (kind of like Band Aid but without Bob Geldof)

In the spirit of our schooling days, we'll be holding a food drive, where everyone's invited to bring a few cans of food, dug out from the back of dusty food cupboards, which we will be donating to a central London soup kitchen. It is hoped that this nostalgia trip will also be a way for the Twittersphere to help those in need.

The idea for the Harvest Twestival came about Tom Malcolm's (Diffusion PR) love for karaoke, Tim Hoang's (Porter Novelli) love for getting people together and Ben Matthews' (Hotwire PR) love for helping those in need.

There'll also be an announcement of a new project that will use the PR community to help charities non-profits and social enterprises, of which more details will be released closer to the time.

It all promises to be a fun evening, a chance to meet up with old friends and meet some new ones, all while doing a little bit to help those who are less fortunate.

Once we've sorted a venue and sponsors for a bit of beer money, we'll also set up an event invite on the Facebook group.

For more information, contact one of the organisers via twitter - Ben Matthews (@benrmatthews), Tim Hoang (@timhoang) or Tom Malcolm (@tommalcolm).

In the meantime, get practicing on your singing voice, dig out a few cans of food, and we'll see you on the 25th!

Three Communication PRunks

Mr. PR Blogger, Stephen Davies, was kind enough to tag me in a blog meme around an up-and-coming event called New Wave PR. Organised by Andy Wake from event management company, Don’t Panic, the meme was started as:

“a fun way to create some buzz, identify potential speakers and find out who you feel the visionaries, mavericks and pioneers of PR really are.

The idea’s simple. We’re asking you to list the three communicators living or dead who have most influenced your way of thinking professionally and perhaps personally too. Who do you think the real innovators are? Who’s been most responsible for kicking the industry forward? And just who are the communication PRunks?”

Andy’s listed his three (Malcolm McLaren, Bill Drummond, and Banksy) and Stephen listed his (Muhammad Ali, Richard Branson, and the PR blogosphere). Although I still don't quite understand what a "PRunk" is (a play on PR and punk? Or PR hunks?), here's my three top communicators:

Winston Churchill - apart from bering the inspiration for the mascot of a car insurance company (Ooooooh yes), Churchill was known chiefly for his leadership during World War II. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was a noted orator (despite having a speech impediment) and was also a Nobel Prize-winning writer, penning a whole host of weighty tomes. To see how truly great a communicator Churchill was, watch this video, listen to the weight of his words, then go and find out some more about him.

Seth Godin - Seth is a renowned speaker. He was recently chosen as one of 21 Speakers for the Next Century by Successful Meetings and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses. Godin is author of ten books that have been bestsellers around the world. His most recent titles include The Dip and Meatball Sundae. Free Prize Inside was published in early May, 2004 and All Marketers Are Liars was published in 2005. His books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. Permission Marketing was an Amazon.com Top 100 bestseller for a year, a Fortune Best Business Book and it spent four months on the Business Week bestseller list. Read his blog - his brevity, clarity and insight blows me (and hundreds of thousands of other readers) every time he posts.

Nelson Mandela - As the world's most famous prisoner, a former President of South Africa and the first to be elected in fully representative democratic elections, Mandela exemplifies and communicates a moral integrity that shines far beyond South Africa. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. He spent 27 years in prison, much of it on Robben Island, on convictions for crimes that included sabotage committed while he spearheaded the struggle against apartheid. His book, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, is an awe-inspirng insight into one of the wrold's greatest political thinkers. Asked to comment on the BBC's unflattering verdict on his performance as a leader, Mandela said with a smile, "It helps to make you human."

That's my three done. I tag Watson, Whitehurst and McInnes.

Silicon Seaside

Last week Tim Bradshaw, the Financial Times' intrepid Digital Media Correspondent, wrote an article called "Silicon Roundabout", about an area near Old Street tube station where a whole menagerie of internet start-ups are based.

It started when Matt Biddulph, CTO of Dopplr, plotted his fellow Roundabouters on Google Maps to lend credence to the idea (see http://bit.ly/siliconroundabout). It was soon picked up and spread around the blogosphere (see here, here, here and here.)

Well, I'd like to be so bold (if I may) as to offer up an alternative to Silicon Valley, Silicon Roundabout and all the other Silicon Somethings out there (is there such a place as Silicon Implant?)

It's called "Silicon Seaside", and is otherwise known as Brighton.

Brighton seems to have captured the right mix of creatives and techies to form a special place with its own distinct atmosphere (let alone being my place of birth, which is pretty special in itself...)

There's a whole host of stuff going on in Brighton. There's Wired Sussex, who works with digital media companies of all sizes helping them to develop and grow, and Sussex Digital, which focuses on the Sussex figital commnity. There's the Whuffie Club, a new social media network started by the guys at Social8, a company that advises, supports and trains organisations wishing to deploy blogs, wikis and collaborative solutions. Nixon McInnes, those social media superstars with Tom Nixon and Will McInnes at the helm, also call Brighton their home (and are a client at Hotwire). There's more SEO and Search Marketing companies than you can shake a stick of Brighton rock at, Leapfrogg and Propellernet being the two that I'm most aware of.

For those that don't have their own fancy office space, there's The Werks, a hub designed to provide workspace, education, support, events and workshops to creative businesses in Brighton. The Werks also runs a range of events which appeal to the the Brighton scene, with subjects ranging from "Grow your wiki" to "Using Wordpress as a CMS".

Brighton also plays host to its very own BarCamp, with the next one (BarCampBrighton3) being held in September. BarCampBrighton3 is proving as popular as its London counterpart, with the first round of 40 tickets selling out in just 10 minutes and MySpace heading a list of impressive sponsors.

In fact, Brighton is showing more signs of giving London a run for its money. Microsoft announced that they would be holding their ReMix UK event in Brighton this year, which is usually held in London. Microsoft even went so far to describe Brighton as "a really chilled out place that has a unique creative buzz about it."

If all that wasn't enough, up pops Josh Russell with yet another scheme to pull the digital media mavens away from London Town - the Brighton Social Media Cafe, "a place for people interested in social media to gather, get acquainted, and to plot, scheme, and share." The first meet up takes place at 11am on Saturday August 16th 2008 and there's a wiki you can sign up to at www.icanhaz.com/TuttleBrighton

Incidentally, Josh also blogged about the proliferation of geeks and techies in Brighton where "you’re never more than 5 minutes away from another geek or “web professional” like-minded folk."According to Josh, all it takes "is a twitter about coffee and a vague mention of a location, and the geeks will find themselves drawn towards you."Josh even produced a map of their regular haunts should you ever want to bump into one, which you can see on Google Maps.

I'm not sure if the term will catch on, but there's a lot going on down in Brighton so why not take a trip down to find ou for yourself? It's under an hour by train from London, there's a lovely beach and ther'es always the Josh's Google Map should you want to meet some like-minded folk.

I'm sure there's a whole host of companies, ideas and networks that I've missed out here, which I'm hoping those too-cool-for-school Brighton people will fill me in on.

"Silicon Seaside" - what do you think?

Should PR people blog/tweet about their client work?

Not wanting to start of this post sounding like an episode of Sex and the City, but what are the rules surrounding PR practitioners talking about their client work in the online space? Does it annoy the people not in PR have to put up with our occasional promotional tweets in between personal messages? Should we be posting/tweeting about or client work at all?

Etiquette would have it that most people would be perfectly happy to put up with a few plugs from a PR person, as long as there was a disclaimer stating that it was client work. I've done it a few times on Twitter (with a disclaimer), but I've seen a few people being pulled up for tweeting about client work but not disclaiming the fact.

There's also the issue of people who put up a link on their blog or a Tiny URL on their Twitter feed, but not informing people where the link leads to. Often it is to personal blog post or a clients site. Is this practice frowned upon?

What about people who blog/tweet on behalf of a client? And what if they then retweet a client's messages sans disclaimer? This confuses the issue even more.

I believe that in PR, transparency and authenticity counts for a lot. I'm perfectly happy for people to write about their client work and even plug it, as long as the wool isn't being pulled over our eyes and there's a clear disclaimer that lets everyone know that what has been written should be read from a certain perspective. Sometimes it can be really useful for people to write about their client work as it may be of genuine interest to people who read about it.

Our personal and business lives are so intertwined in the online community that it is often impossible to separate the two in some cases. Even then, it is only good practice to let people know what's going on behind the scenes.

What do you think? Do you let people know when you write about client work? Do you get annoyed when people write about their clients without telling you that they're being paid by them?

(P.S. Apologies, but upon rereading this post, it really does seem like something out of Sex and the City, especially if you read it in Sarah Jessica Parker's whiney New York accent)