Google’s Social Circle & The Trust Network

Social search… interesting development. Or is it.  Google have been including social web results in search results for a number of months now. Google’s next development seems (as explained in the above slightly creepy and uber conservative video – count the amount of mentions of security related words) is to use the content from the social sites that you have added to your Google profile into your main web search results.

This creates some level of helpfulness in cross referencing friends, comments and answers to questions across social platforms.  Meaning that if I look up details about where to go on honeymoon I will get trip advisor, expedia and the gang, but also results from my friend Tim’s blog about where he went on holiday last week – a result that would never usually hit page 1 of a search result list. All of this is nice enough and interesting in a slightly geeky, if you’re into that stuff, kind of way.

However what is interesting is the greater trend that has prompted this technology from Google – personal networks of trust. We have known for a long time now that word-of-mouth from friends and contacts is the most trusted source of information to us. The entire public relations industry thrives on this single fact, we trust those who we know more than those who we don’t. Therefore it is logical that when I want honeymoon ideas, or where to rent a Tux for my wedding (which is in June by the way – presents welcome, gift list link to come!) I can use Social Search to check what my contacts and friends across my social circles (the Google terminology for our networks of trust) think about the topics I am searching for.

Of course this has significant ramifications for brands who interact in the social web. The default of most web users when looking for information is to jump into the lap of Google, whether looking for a good deal on a TV or life insurance, and according to HitWise “The proportion of traffic that online retailers receive from social networking websites – such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube – increased from 5.2% in March 2008 to 7.1% in March 2009.”

Brands who don’t currently interact in the social web, or have poor SEO of the content that they currently produce are going to come a-cropper if Social Search moves towards a default. Clearly, if we begin to see the opinions of our contacts displayed right alongside carefully SEO’d content and Paid Search, competition for our attention heightens, and our default will be to go with what we trust – our contacts.

Bloggers, BNP and the BBC

Frankly it was hardly suprising that most of last nights Question Time became a bit of slangging match. From the panel, to the audience to the twitterati. Nick Griffin still shocking as ever but not surprising in any way. It meandered its way in and out of homophobia (Stephen Gately), immigration (Winston Churchill) and racism (the KKK) – (all of whom will be starring in my script for a new west end musical – so watch this space!) – but what was most interesting, that of course wasn’t mentioned in the show as it was recorded a couple of hours previously – was the reaction on twitter.

As I mentioned during the show last night watching TV has changed dramatically when you add twitter into the mix. Some of the biggest televised events in recent months have taken on a whole new dimension when you add the live commentary of the twitterati to the mix, and the result is very interesting. From Jackson’s funeral, Obama’s inauguration to last nights BNP debacle (who co-incidental feature in part two of my musical), these events have been amplified dramatically through the help of real-time media – of which twitter has been central.

This is interesting from a number of points, firstly that of people using multiple media sources simultaneously is slowly moving into the mainstream as Alan from Broadsight’s Broadstuff blog pointed out today:

The dream of people interacting around TV programming via social networks, a key plank of Joost’s original pitch, has been shown to be valid – its just that people are using a microblogging service on standard terrestrial TV rather than herding sheeplike into the Web TV players’ own social networks

The way in which these media are now complimenting each other and providing additional functionality, as opposed to driving one or the other to the brink of extinction goes one step further to prove that we really are becoming a convergent culture, and are able to cope and adopt many different types of media, without sacrificing our time to another.

Uses of the #bbcqt tag on twitter in the run up to last night's Question Time on BBC where Nick Griffin head of the BNP was a panelist

What is truly interesting however was the way in which twitter influenced the viewing of the programme in the first place. Last night’s programme received over 8 million viewers, more than doubling the last highest audience of 3.7 million. According to my research using Radian6 (our social media monitoring partner which we use here at Ogilvy) – the hashtag for question time – #bbcqt was used over 5000 times in the past 3 days (although the BBC reportedly say it was used 75,000 times), over half of which took place before the programme had started. The reach of these 2000+ tweets is phenomenal.

The Top 10 Tweeters who used the #bbcqt tag

Looking at just the top 10 most followed twitter users who used the #tag in the past 3 days (even if they only used it once) would amount to a potential reach of nearly 250,000 followers – if you start adding up Mr Anderson’s “long tail” you begin to see the bigger picture, and how this could have some clear influence on reaching new audiences that would never usually watch the show.

The question is now, how will the BBC capitalise this in other areas? Tweeting Songs of Praise? Guess the price on Antique’s Roadshow? GPS tagged tweets during Location Location Location?

The possibilities are endless…

Hunting for Twitter brands for #140conf London!

I will be hosting the brand sessions at London's 140 Conf

I’ve been very kindly asked by good friend of the Ogilvy clan Jeff Pulver to come and host two sessions with brands at the London lef of Jeff’s fantastically popular 140 Character Conference.

Therefore I am on the hunt for some ingenious UK brands using twitter for the betterment of themselves, their customers or just mankind in general!

If you are, or know such a brand please send their @name plus a brief explanation to me via twitter or here as a comment so we can start sorting the wheat from the chaff – and try and be original!

The conference itself looks to be fantastic with Chris Brogan joining us live via Skype from NYC and the legend that is Stephen Fry in the room with us on the day! We will also be joined by the likes of Jeff Hayzlett from Kodak and the wonderful Josie Fraser aswell! So we are all in for a treat!

So keep the suggestions coming, and don’t forget to head over the conference site to register.

Smarter Work: Why Social Networks Matter

View more documents from Sacha Chua.

Getting stuck into Glue

The good people at Glue have given me a BETA account to test out, and i’ll be sharing my interview with Peter – their CEO on the blog in the next week.

For now i’m writing this post to you in the nice simple, orange glue interface and giving it a whirl.

Full review to come!

J

via Glue

Wembley Skies

As today is National Poetry Day, here is a little one of my own from the Sunday Latte Lamentations Archive, which I am hoping to include in a published volume someday *sigh*…

Thoughts welcome!

Wembley skies
Arch raised
Ablaze with roars
Of soul’s unfazed
Empty poster boards
Remind to mind the gap
And stay on track
Tell me to keep it down
Not for country or crown
But for peace.
Not much found here
Except the dripping drops
Of inspiration as the
Teams scores for the nation

Another stop passes
One more unmasked station
It’s not my stop
But hearing my destination
A promise of home
Turns into expectation.
So I mind the closing doors
And release the emergency handle.
Focusing on my candle
Stick maker, I forget,
The butcher and head on into
Baker Street, to take my pick
A fleet of franchise
Each providing a new need.

Grabbing my companion in a cup
The beer ad’s ‘wassup?’
Leaves no sting,
A warm sofa seat,
Whose heat I don’t feel.
Just His warmth as the layers
He peels back, reveals
That little bit of His,
That is already mine.
Beyond this congestion zone
Is something more glorious
Not just ‘fine’.
Beyond this groan
Is a place called home.
Not just where the heart is
But where I know and am known..

Keeping Time

Autumn is setting in now. You can taste it. That smell of nature putting on it’s wooly jumper, the first leaves browning and dropping to the earth from where once they came. Crisper than a freshly cooked poppadum.

There is something distinctly beautiful about autumn, the way that as the nights get shorter the feeling that hybernation is on it’s way, making every dawn chorus all the more sweeter.

I love the way that God designed life to work in seasons, patterns, rhythms. The way that all of nature has a course that is set, and there is nothing we can say or do to take control of it. We may generate air conditioning for the summer or tanning booths to maintain a glow in winter, but for all our efforts nature continues on in it’s slowly changing seasons, each giving hints of the next to come.

All of creation works on these cycles, the sabbath day for rest, winter to give life to spring, night to give way to day, meal times to revive, harvests to provide.

The temptation however is always to mess around with these seasons. These rhythms that God has set in us, we try to carry on as if they don’t exist, or at least don’t apply to ourselves. I have experienced this recently, that feeling of being out of sync with the beat that God has been setting. You feel it in your bones when it happens, your heart beats slightly faster, there is a slight jitter when you pick up your coffee cup, your temper feels slightly shorter, making those once little things feel bigger.

It’s all too easy to slip out of time with the fathers rhythms, the world tells us to work harder, stay up later, get the earlier train. But that wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Right back at the beginning of creation, we had the rhythm instilled in us, work 6 days, rest 1. Take time to enjoy Gods presence, as Adam did when he walked with the Father in the garden. Rise with the sun, put the fields put to pasture, come together to eat and remember and to share in joy.

These patterns, rhythms, seasons, are instilled into life itself, why do we wonder then when we try and beat our own tempo that we feel stretched?

Oddly so much of the time it’s is ourselves that cause us the most stress, yet we turn to “self help” for the answers. We seek for inner meaning, within ourselves yet we constantly define ourselves by others opinions. We search for enlightenment, not in simplicity, but under the crushing weight of understanding, learning and pursuit of wisdom. All in the grand scheme of finding a way to become more in control of our lives.

It seems to me that if we just started paying more attention to the clear rhythms that God has set for us, rather than constantly trying to beat our own, we would see a marked difference in how we see the world, our work and our relations with others. For all of these become strained when we try and Set our own pace.

It’s like this. The greatest Orchestras in the world are made of hundreds of parts, The Philharmonic, the BBC Concert, The Sydney National, all of them, they have different players, parts, specialities. Hundreds of highly trained and skilled individuals at the top of their games. But what really makes the whole thing sing- is the conductor. You see without a great conductor at the front and centre of the stage, these orchestras will sound a mess. The conductor keeps time, he tells the different sections when to come in and when to rest. He makes sure that the ebb and flow of the piece is kept in check, and stops the different parts from running ahead of the pack.

It’s like this with God. He helps us keep the time, tempo and rhythm of our lives on track so we don’t get carried away with our own worlds and how this world tells us our lives should beat. Because it’s all to easy to get off track, much like when the DJ doesn’t quite get the mix right and two tempos don’t quite blend together, it grates on us to hear it because we can feel it in our bones. We are made to detect rhythms and beats, because The Great Conductor ordered us to be that way.

If you are feeling like something isn’t quite clicking. If life keeps throwing a bad mix at you, if all seems not quite in sync, like the orchestra is constantly playing a loop or never getting started in the first place, then listen up. Sometimes we just need to put down the sticks and stop drumming our own beat, and listen to the one who set the rhythm of the universe in motion, and keep time with Him.

The empowerment of youth

A cultural shift seems to be happening all around me right now. One of the empowering of the young. One where the 20somethings of the world are the ones who are changing the games of business, commerce, media and technology.

After spending the evening with a friend and fellow member of the young entrepeneurial community here in old London town, discussing his marketing plan for his next web venture, it struck me how myself and my chum Andy were both products of this cultural enabling that the likes of Zuckerberg and Biz Stone have paved the way for.

Clearly this is no new phenomena, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, the Wright brothers, all at one stage were those visionaries who looked around the world run by the fat cats with even fatter paypackets and saw a chance, despite the crtisism of their elders, to change the world.

For people like Andy and I, we face that age old of problem of youth where from time to time we have to stand in front of colleagues and clients alike and fight our corner to be heard. Thankfully God has blessed me with clients and colleagues that, for the most part, let me do just that, and the tenacity to keep fighting even when they don’t.

So it’s not something I take lightly, nor am I detracting from the obvious enormous value of experience, wisdom and knowledge that comes from years of work in the field. However, the cut of it is that no school master, text book or lecturer ever prepped us for this. When we get shoved out of education and into the working world, particularly the media world, we are taught that we should be expecting to be treated like dogs and work from the bottom up.

The wonderful and awe inspiring thing however, is that the rise of online collaboaration, crowd sourcing and entrepeneurialism that the Web 2.0 world has brought us is changing that old world order. No longer are we chained to the hierachy, but now have access to the celebrities, board directors and gatekeepers of business in ways that have never been known in the history of modern business.

People constantly ask me what’s the future of social media, the next big thing, the new platform or fad? Well here it is folks – the empowerment of youth. Truly a force to be reckoned with.

Mom .v. Mum

Mommy Blogger PR Blackout Week - 10th - 17th August 09

Across the US each week Moms tap out their lives for all to read on their work PC’s, their home laptops and their iPhones in the line at Starbucks. Whether it be their latest stroller purchase, to the problems with breastfeeding. However a a growing trend has been the way that big brands, REALLY big brands have spotted the potential impact of these mommy bloggers, and as such have begun to use them in some really interesting ways. Walmart’s Eleven Mom’s has been a particularly interesting example of mom’s being put on the digital pedestal to become brand advocates, these 11, chosen by outreaching to the mom blogging community and on twitter and Facebook, the 12 elevenmom’s (there’s yankee logic for you) sit at the centre of the Walmart money saving proposition. The project has been highly successful, capitulating these mom’s to at least local celebrity level, so much so that Walmart has launched a sister (no pun intended) project on it’s Hispanic community site, both projects being backed up by an SMS holiday savings campaign.

Projects like the elevenmom’s amongst many others from both corporate and consumers brands have taken the mommy blogger community to among the top of the social capital ladder, and no one is more acutely aware of this than the mom’s themselves. So much so that PR’s targeting these bloggers has generated some reticence among the community -  with many mommy blogger setting up seperate blogs just to deal with the amount of product review requests they recieve, this is hardly surprising that the purist among the community are looking to get back to basics.

Aggregating mommy community site MomDot posted on July 13th declaring the inception of PR Blackout, which took place this week, as a mechanism to combat the PR community and appealing to the mom bloggers to return to roots:

MomDot is challenging bloggers to participate for one week in August in a PR BLACKOUT challenge where you do not blog ANY giveaways, ANY reviews, and Zero press releases. In fact, we dont want you to talk to PR at ALL that whole week.  We want to see your blog naked, raw, and back to basics. Talk about your kids, your marriage, your college, your hopes, your dreams, your house and whatever you can come up with for one week.

I am not writing here to oppose nor endorse this week – if you are a mom blogger, blog on I say, do what you feel is best, however the reason for this post is far more about the interesting comparison between the Mommy blogger movement in the US and the Mum bloggers here in the UK. With massive conferences such as BlogHer to the communities like MomDot, the mommy blogger culture is being festered and encouraged to the heights where a PR blackout week is actually needed, but here in the UK the landscape is so much quieter that it seems to need more investigation. Community sites like mumsnet.com and mychild.co.uk are beginning to show that we are following down the US model, but at no where near the speed, and you have to wonder why?

Maybe we are being to British, maybe Mum’s have less time on their hands, or maybe the privacy of the English population is being help closer to the preverbial bousoum, for now. Time and again we have seen many trends that developed in the US ever make that long tail leap across the pond, and this may well be the case with the mommy bloggers. We may never see the day that the mummy community rises up to drum on the doors of Tesco over the price of nappies, but if we do, the PR 2.0 world better watch out.

Vouchacha – A recession beating iPhone App!

Location Based Food Vouchers for your iPhone - VouChaCha

The voucher code trend has taken London by storm in recent months, anyone who is anyone seems to have used at least 3 Pizza Express vouchers for 2-4-1 pizzas in recent months, let alone the likes of Strada, La Tasca and many other chain, not quite fast food franchisees to boot.

A second trend has been the massive uptake of the wonderful iPhone (of which, yes i am a proud and addicted owner) and the massive expansion of the app store serving every mobile based pleasure you can get your grubby little mitts on.

So what happens when you take the magic equasion of food voucher codes + location based iPhone tech? The Answer: VouChaCha!

A friend of mine who has been working on the back end of this for a couple of months now, and they are near to a BETA version which you can go and take a look at here.

In their own words “VouChaCha instantly delivers vouchers that you can use, wherever you are… Direct to you mobile phone.” – Brilliant for techno-foodies like myself.

A few others exist in the market place, but seem to have crappy interfaces (“London Offers & Vouchers”) and as such are poorly rated, but this looks like it will be much better – at least sleeker.

Yes this may seem like a blatant plug (you can pay me later Alan) but it’s not – I genuinely think this is brilliant, so go sign up for the BETA test email and you can stay tuned because this really looks cracking!