This summer The Metro Newspaper asked us to track the online sentiment towards this years big brother contestants. So, we put them into the system and  I spent the next ten weeks monitoring daily, what Brandwatch brought back. Every morning, armed with a steaming cup of coffee i logged in and patiently scanned the content Brandwatch picked up; lots of mindful insight like the biggest topic of “ugly bitch”  and inspiring comment,  “did yah see nicole doin the thriller dance she fort shu was pua amazinn”

I said a silent thank you on the last eviction night …and here I reflect on what we got out of it.  Well…apart from a lucrative flutter with the bookies (brandwatch correctly predicted the evictee for 8 out of 10 weeks), we built a new chart . (more…)

Filed under: Brands, Public Relations, Sentiment analysis, Technology by Katja Garrood

I have a trek bike - a 4200 or something like that. It has a drum brake on the back wheel which has been getting more spongy and less effective. Almost to the point of being useless and given the state of my front brake pads, it’s something I had put on my list of things to fix. I hate that list.

Being a good citizen and signed-up member of the movement towards self-sustainability, I cycle to work and on Friday I went over to my bike to ride home and found that it had been tampered with.

The back brake had been adjusted. And suddenly it worked perfectly again.

I was, as you may imagine, rather surprised by this. And during my cycle home into the setting sun, I had a smile on my face and I secretly thanked my anonymous and selfless bike fixer.

Thank you whoever you are.

Filed under: Public Relations by Giles Palmer

According to wikipedia “Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures.

The second paragraph goes on “Social media use the ‘wisdom of crowds’ to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video”.

(more…)

Filed under: Consumer Generated Media, Public Relations, Social Media by Giles Palmer

Let’s face it, increasingly blogs are yielding the power to either build or break a brand.  So for PR professionals – those ultimately responsible for their client’s reputation - it’s more important than ever to listen up, pay attention and be able to influence what’s being said online about your clients’ brands.

According to Don Bartholomew, author of ‘Proving the Value of Public Relations’, first generation attempts at measuring the extent of online coverage of your brand have predominantly relied on traditional media metrics like numbers of impressions. But Don believes that 2008 will see a stronger push toward specialised metrics to understand online engagement and dialogue, rather than just exposure.  He rates online analytics as the top measurement trend for PR in 2008. (more…)

Filed under: Consumer Generated Media, Public Relations by Giles Palmer