Year: 2012

Instagram has just announced changes to its terms of service which have annoyed pretty much anyone, anywhere including me. The new TOS will come into affect from 16th January and this will include a number of new stipulations which have been described as the most significant changes in its history. It refers to how user photos can be used by the company and of course its most recent owner Facebook. These two points particularly caught my eye in its rights section: Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or ... Read more

Unless you have been hidden under a rather large rock over the last twelve months you can’t have missed the splash that the Official CIPR Social Media Handbook “Share This” has made in the PR community. As I live in the freezing cold north of England and my agency’s HQ is in Leeds I don’t tend to get to as many conferences these days as I would like and so I read a lot of books and online media on digital marketing. I bought “Share This” a while back because I wanted to find a book that offered practical advice ... Read more

Pinterest is still the social network of the moment despite Instagram making waves over the last twelve months. You simply cannot fail to fall over the “Pin It” buttons which are now appearing all over our favourite websites. As part of a wider digital strategy I recently recommended that one of my online retailer clients add the “Pin It” button to their site and although this was only a couple of months ago, Pinterest has already become the number one social media referrer of traffic beating Facebook, Twitter and others into submission. The fundamental reason for this is people pin or ... Read more

The global phenomenon that was “The Social Media Revolution” video has been upgraded into a new version by Socialnomics. The first two versions have proved rather popular, especially the version with Fat Boy Slim’s Right Here Right Now on it. This latest version has been created for 2013 and offers some interesting quotes and statistics. These videos are always good for people that aren’t quite sure or fully understand the benefits of social media. The first video was really hard hitting, if I was going to criticise I would say it didn’t need to be quite as long as I ... Read more

Facebook’s rise and rise is well documented and continually coveted everywhere from The Times through to the highest profile social media bloggers. It is always lauded as the best platform since sliced bread however I have a few gripes and I just don’t understand why they haven’t fixed them already. Facebook – The Advertising Platform I understand why, although irritating, how important Facebook advertisements are as part of a seeding strategy and making people aware of a Facebook campaign. However, all you need to do if you really want Facebook to get on your nerves is have a play with ... Read more

Last week, I was having multiple platform conversations with my old colleague and friend Stuart Bruce, we were chatting on Skype, Google+, Twitter and email. It led us to discuss Google+ in a little more detail. I have been impressed with how Google has developed Google+ as it has got some truly brilliant features and it keeps adding more and more but I wasn’t still convinced about how useful it actually was as I have always thought of it as a social media ghost town full of Google employees and SEO consultants. The truth is it still is a bit ... Read more

Here’s a bit of a fun for a Friday, I love this video and it has been so successful the company has already raised $10million. If a brand doesn’t take itself too seriously it can capture the public’s imagination. Now be honest – wouldn’t you love a client to sign off a video of this nature? Just think of the amount of fun you could have. The bumf: Dollar Shave Club couldn’t be simpler. Select one of our great razors, pay one low monthly fee, and we send ’em right to your door. No more over-paying for fancy brand name ... Read more

Today I attended an event which was organised and presented by a number of young PR apprentices from the Leeds area. I went to see how good they were and how the scheme worked in practice and if I am honest I was very impressed. I sit on the CIPR committee here in the North and this is because I strongly believe in helping to develop young people who want to work in PR, which is why I was so interested in this relatively new concept. At Prohibition we have a dedicated intern-programme that we run to help develop local ... Read more

  In case you didn’t know I have spent the last seven months rocking backwards and forth late in the evenings trying desperately to get my little baby boy to sleep at 3, 4 and 5am. He is not the best sleeper in the world but it has all been worth it as in the daytime he is amazing and full of laughs and smiles. However, what about spotting other people that have not been getting enough sleep? I manage to hide it well but do they? Well to help celebrate National Sleep In Day this weekend, my digital PR ... Read more

Another week and another brilliant PR stunt – this time it was the Bodyform Facebook page that earlier received a post from a guy called Richard complaining about periods in the following manner: Hi , as a man I must ask why you have lied to us for all these years . As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things ,I felt a little jealous. I mean bike riding , rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, why couldn’t I get to enjoy this ... Read more