LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST...

Most horrible Gmail ad?

Yuk.

What's more worrying is that this is supposed personally designed for me. 

Yuk.

I am trying to work out what key words I have been using in my emails recently.

Google ad-serving technology. FAIL

The Etiquette of Twitter - 3 tips to getting started

In terms of technology, 2009 has been the year of Twitter: Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Phillip Schofield, Chris Moyles and many many more celebs have all started tweeting - the mind boggles. 

If you want a quick overview watch this BBC clip:

According to the lovely Hitwise UK people traffic has trebled in 2009 and in the top 100 of UK visited websites. And you can see why it's happened, Twitter has been all over the mainstream media: Radio 1, The One Show, Daily Mail, Telegraph, New York Times etc. You have to have been living under a rock for the last month not to have been tempted to sign up and find out what all the fuss is about!

Although the Twitter-celebs are fun to follow and its their stardust that has propelled Twitter into the digital stratosphere for me its the normal folks that are getting onto Twitter that I find so fascinating. Friends that I would never in a million years have thought would be interested are signing up in droves. And I think that's great. 

There have been many many article of the Etiquette of Twitter, this is a great one from David Pogue at the NY Times who advises "don't worry about the rules", so without wanting to simply repeat his smart write-up, here are some thoughts from a veteran Twitterer.

FYI, these are thoughts or tips rather than rules!

1. Write your Profile:
I can't stress how important that is. When someone Follows me, I click on their link and this is the first thing that I read. I enjoy following new people, but I want to follow people who I think will be interesting, funny and smart (not necessarily all at the same time, but you get my point) If there's no profile and I don't know you in real life then I am not going to follow you back. Just think of it like introducing yourself to someone new at a party, its the beginning of a conversation.

2. Find, Follow, Forward:
Its flattering when someone follows you back (and I am discounting all those Auto-Follow folks, this seems to be playing the old MySpace "how many friends can I build up as quickly as possible" game), so you should add people if they sound interesting. You can always un-follow them and they won't know. If you read a great Tweet and think that others will be interested forward it aka Re-Tweet  it (RT), always saying who you got it from.

3. Be Useful, Be Interesting, Be Engaging:
Its the same rules that I often talk about for digital planning. Twitter is a community or rather hundreds of thousands of small personalized micro-communities. Don't over-tweet, some people at the start seem to tweet every 3 minutes. But when you find something genuinely interesting or funny, tweet it - add the URL. If someone tweets a question that you can help with, tweet back and answer. Its a conversation.

And that's it really.

Like all technology it takes a bit of time to get your head round it, so give it a go. Stick with it. Follow my tips (or don't) and see how you find it. Personally I agree with David Pogue, I think that Twitter is "powerful, useful, addictive and fascinating."

Have fun!

Come and say hello: www.twitter.com/Amelia_Torode

Compare the Market / Meerkat - when Social Media takes off

When the third most followed Twitter-celeb Stephen Fry got stuck in a lift last night coming back from the Paramount Club (see his Twitter feed if you have not already) it caused quite a bit of news.

What you might not have known was that our lovely Aleks was stuck with him (not looking too amused as you can see...)

This was uploaded (not by anyone related to the campaign I hasten to add) to Aleksandr Orlov's Facebook group first thing this morning. It's now on TwitPic (have a read of the comments, especially about the man in the blue tie front-left...) Not only did it made me chuckle over my toast and marmite, it also brought home to me that interesting creative ideas take on a life of their own when they emerge in the Social Media world.

Aleksandr has over 80,000 fans on Facebook after 4 weeks and over 2,000 followers on Twitter, but our Aleks Social Media success metric is not just about scale but more about the depth of engagement. We were interested in tending an active community of participants, not passive observers. Have a look at the Twitter and Facebook communities and you will find a joined-up conversation occuring. People tweet their questions to Aleks and get into conversations not only with him but also with other meetkat-friends. It is genuinely funny. On Facebook fans are uploading their own customized pictures of Mr Orlov and starting petitions to get cuddly toys made. But above all the quirky, opininated character of Aleks and his love for all things Shania Twain, Titanic (the movie, not the boat) and his bespoke smoking jacket shines through.

And of course from a business perspective, what is it doing for the business of Compare The Market. These web trend stats speak for themselves, the blue line is Comparethemarket.com and the red comparethemeerkat.com
These are stats from the clever folks at Hitwise UK: Since Aleksandr the Meerkat and founder of comparethemeerkat.com televised that his site was not the ‘cheap car insurance’ website comparethemarket.com visits to both sites have increased significantly. According to Hitwise UK visits to Compare the Market have increased by 86% since the week ending the 27th December, as the chart reveals this corresponds with the traffic to Compare the Meerkat’s traffic. 21% of the people visiting Compare the Meerkat went directly to Compare the Market.

I have always said that Social Media is not a replacement for a great creative idea or for a TV commercial. TV adds mass awareness and acts as a catalyst for the Social Media activity, but its on the likes of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook that in my opinion the real fun and conversations are occurring.

This is Alek's latest ad (which was launched to all of his friends Twitter and Facebook before anyone else) in case you have not seen it yet, enjoy!

Simples.