Social Media Podcast Edition 59 - Is Facebook losing the teen battle to Twitter? And Gordon sleeps with Pamela Anderson!

Social Media Podcast No.59 has a fairly full team in attendance; Gordon White is joined by Kyle Murdoch, Cameron Wilson, Graeme Geddes and Joanna Robb from fatBuzz.

It's been a while since the last podcast and, as we explain in the podcast, we've been extremely busy on client work.  In fact, we share with you some of the work we've been doing and some of the new clients we've won recently.

We also introduce the newest member of the fatBuzz team, Cameron Wilson who joins in on the podcast for the first time. And, Graeme Geddes got married since the last edition so we wish him and Lesley well as they start married life together.

As usual we cover lots of topics in no particular order with some light hearted banter along the way. Here are some of the things we discuss in the podcast starting with everyone's favourite example from the recent Social Media Winners & Losers New Media Breakfast presentation:

• Social Media Winners and Losers staff choices
- Kyle - ASOS #denimpairs promotion Visit ASOSLive on uStream...
- Cameron - Dove's Real Beauty Sketches  More Info... (Video available below)
- Graeme - Gavin Barwell learns some 'add sense' Read Guardian article...
- Joanna - Girl quits job to make her point about content Watch the video...
- Gordon - The Instagram Hotel and "Selfie" revolution Read article...

• Gordon recounts when he slept with Pamela Anderson!
• Hahtags and how they can play a part in extending your campaigns
• Twitter is bigger than Facebook for teens?  Is it true?
• Creative inspiration from STA Travel Go to STA Travel's blog
• Meilee Anderson enjoys success through great content and engagement Visit page...
• Facebook Promoted Posts, are they working for you?
• 3 in 10 Americans get their news on Facebook but are they looking for News?
• Merging Facebook Pages - some useful advice
• Social Media Audits - do you know what assets you've got?
• Some recent fatBuzz projects and some new clients
- The Governor of Punjab's new web site Visit site...
- Dean's Shortbread get a new web site and eCommerce store
- Camargue Group Visit web site...
- Zen Lifestyle - Visit web site...
• Video is getting more popular - have you considered using it yet?
• Podcasting is gaining in popularity - don't overlook it for getting your message out 

We hope you enjoy the podcast, if you have any comments to make or topics you would like us to discuss, please leave them here on the blog or on our Facebook Page.

Play the podcast here:

Subscribe/Download Social Media Podcast on iTunes

Would you like a presentation on social media and customer service?
We're offering a range of bespoke or generic presentations on the topic of social media and customer service, if you would like to find out more please go to the following link: Are you prepared to lose control?

Have you listened to the digital copyright podcast?

We continue to see people using images, video content and other files taken from the internet without consideration to potential copyright issues. We would encourage all of our listeners to download Social Media Podcast 50 which clearly outlines what you should and shouldn't do with images sourced online. Find it on iTunes now.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE US TO TALK ABOUT?
If there is a specific topic you would like us to cover in a future podcast please let us know. You can email gordon@fatbuzz.com or send us a message on Twitter @MediaPodcast or, you can post it as a comment on the Social Media Podcast Facebook page.

Watch the Dove Beauty Sketches video here

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Flat design, your target market and making your site more accessible

It has become something of a taboo subject in design recently: everyone is talking about it, Apple have designed their latest mobile operating system around it, and new websites are popping up every day utilising it (some doing it very well, others not so much). The subject, of course, is flat design.

At this point, we should probably give you a rough overview of what flat design is. No longer do we have thick gradients, heavy shadows and the idea of objects jumping off the screen, and gone are the faux leather books, mock notepads and glossy bubbles. All of this falls under the category of skeuomorphism, which in simplistic terms, is the anti-flat design.

With flat design, we’re treated to block colours, subtle to-the-point-of-being-almost-unnoticeable gradients, no shadows anywhere to be seen (unless necessary to give text a faint definition) and an emphasis on text and imagery to convey the user message.

So, what is our opinion on flat design? We asked fatBuzz web developer and former Apple employee, Jon Mills, the self-confessed loather of skeuomorphism for his (slightly biased) opinion.

Personally, when done well, I love flat design. I think it’s cleaner, easier to navigate and far more appealing to the eye. Equally, a lot of people find it too vibrant, and with the removal of indicators as to what an icon or section denotes, users are finding it difficult to get used to. Ultimately, like any change though, it will take time to adapt.

For me though, there are some understated benefits to flat design, and this was particularly highlighted by one particular client’s requirements.

At fatBuzz, we are managing a site for Superior Homes, a property developer in Kenya (where the infrastructure is still in its infancy regarding internet connections) so we’ve had to ensure that we can deliver certain content at a relatively low file size, so that it can be viewed on a Kenyan connection in reasonable time.

The same can also be said for mobile sites, which will sometimes be accessed on a mobile network that won’t always have the rapid speeds we’re used to here in the UK.

Flat design can help complement both these scenarios, by ridding itself of the code and images required to create a skeuomorphic environment.

For example, a flat designed pink block may only take 3 lines of code, whereas the same block with shadows and gradients could take upwards of 20 lines by the time you’re finished covering all browsers (read my blog on browser compatibility).

Extrapolate that into a full site and you could end up adding several hundreds of lines of code, which will of course take that bit longer to load.

When we’re in an industry where everyone wants information yesterday in the palm of their hand, you need to consider ways to achieve this - and improved loading times of 2-3 seconds could make all the difference to the user experience.

Of course, this does pose a few questions to consider about your existing website, and whether it caters for your target audience.

Do you look at the figures to see where in the world people are viewing your site, and do you consider the devices they view them on? Optimising your site is every bit as important as having a presence on the web, and making sure it’s suitable for your clients isn’t something that should be overlooked.

This is a topic that I could write 30 pages about though, so rather than overwhelm you with countless facts and figures, I would invite anyone with questions regarding flat design, their target audience and/or site optimisation, to get in touch with either myself, David or Stuart on 0141 427 0727.

I’ll leave you with a link to the very best of flat design http://fltdsgn.com/ - please let us know which site is your favourite and why by commenting on the blog or on Twitter or Facebook.

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So, who were this year’s social media winners and losers?

    

  

For those who were unable to attend Friday's New Media Breakfast at 29 Private Members Club, you missed a hugely interesting, and at times extremely humorous event.

The topic of Friday's breakfast, 'Social Media Winners and Losers', was to look at a broad range of successful (and less successful) social media campaigns and explore what we can learn from them.

In front of a healthy crowd, complete with a welcome number of new faces, Gordon started off proceedings with Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches campaign.

Dove decided to conduct a 'compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see'. The resulting video, which you can view below, has, thus far, amassed over 56 million on views on YouTube.

As one of our attendees, Thea Newcombe said, this emotive campaign was definitely a social media winner.

As well as Dove, Gordon focused his attention on Asos’s brilliant #DenimPairs campaign.
Essentially, this live, interactive Twitter campaign encouraged people to tweet in two numbers, and if they matched up the pictures on the cards, they could win their perfect pair of jeans

As the video below explains, Asos trended worldwide after just 11 minutes, and then for the duration of the competition. 5,971 tweets used the hashtag during the 32 minutes that the activity ran, with 2,362 unique users.

Of course, we haven’t got the time, or space, to fit all of Gordon’s presentation into one blog post, but here are some highlights (or perhaps lowlights?) of this year’s social media losers.

After British Gas announced a £120 increase to annual energy bills, some wisecrack in the marketing department decided it would be a good idea to launch a question and answer session on Twitter.

Unsurprisingly, the questions, some of which you can see below, weren’t quite what British Gas was expecting.

The biggest laugh of the morning came when Gordon discussed Conservative MP Gavin Barwell’s Twitter gaffe.

The Croydon Central MP was left red-faced after a plan to expose Labour for making money off a ‘date Arab girls’ link backfired and revealed it was actually a targeted advert for his computer!

Of course, these are just a select few of Friday’s winners and losers. Gordon also discussed IRN-BRU’s ‘fanny’ advert (which was launched by a randomly selected follower with just 329 followers), Tennent’s Lager’s SelfTie campaign, Tesco's 'hit the hay' storm, and Belvedere's questionable advert.

As always, we hope you enjoyed Friday’s breakfast, and hope that you can adapt some of these examples and make it work for your business.

Remember, as Gordon explained, we can learn as much from the social media losers as we can from the winners, and identify what not to do.

Do you have a social media success story that you would like to share with us? Or is there a particular social media failure that we didn't touch on?

If so, leave a comment on the blog, or get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter.

If you want to come along to the November New Media Breakfast, and receive some Christmas tips from Craig McGill, you can click HERE to find out more.

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November New Media Breakfast with Craig McGill - Christmas Tips and a Peek at 2014

    

  

CHRISTMAS TIPS AND A PEEK AT 2014

DATE: Friday 29th November 2013
VENUE: 29 Member's Club, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow

THE TOPIC
It's almost Christmas and if you don't have social and digital plans in place already then your goose is probably cooked! But for those doing a last minute social scramble, Craig McGill, Digital Strategist at Weber Shandwick is on hand to deliver some handy last minute Christmas tips that might help B2B and B2C get some last minute sales in.

And – as it's nearly that time of year – a quick look ahead with some predictions as to what 2014 is going to bring social and digital.

So for last minute Xmas advice or a sneak peak to 2014, the November New Media Breakfast presentation is the place to be.

THE SPEAKER
Craig McGill, Weber Shandwick will present the November New Media Breakfast.

Craig is one of Scotland’s leading social media consultants; working with companies throughout the UK, many in the whisky industry, he has built an excellent reputation as a social media visionary and practitioner. He is a regular speaker at business networking and training events and we look forward to his insight into one of the great Scottish economic success stories in recent years.
Craig on LinkedIn

HOW TO BOOK
Venue: 29 Member's Club, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow
Date: Friday 29thth November 2013
Time: 7.30am for 8am
Cost: £10+VAT

BOOK FOR NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST GLASGOW HERE:

No.29 MEMBERS GO FREE
If you are a 29 Member you can attend the breakfast free of charge. Please email fiona@fatbuzz.com with you membership number and he will add you to the attendance list.

We hope you can make it along to this event. If so, I look forward to seeing you on the day.

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Sgt. Social Media - Is social media becoming an effective tool in law enforcement?

At fatBuzz, not only do we like to keep tabs on the world of social media and all things digital, we also keep a close eye on the news.

Recently, we've noticed the digital world and news world are coming ever closer to each other, and at times, becoming intertwined.

In this blog post, Social Media Account Manager, Cameron, discusses how social media is becoming an effective tool in law enforcement.

Remember the ‘Peru Two’; the two girls who got caught trying to smuggle 25kg (£1.5 million) worth of cocaine out of Peru? If not, don’t worry, there’s a blog we wrote about them HERE.

In their statements, the girls tell how they were working in Ibiza and did not meet until they were 'kidnapped at gunpoint' and forced to go to Majorca, however photos uploaded to Instagram allegedly showed the two of them sunning themselves in Ibiza together.

This most likely had a large impact on the case and, who knows, may have just resulted in the two pleading guilty to the charges. However, the ‘Peru Two’ aren't the only ‘bad guys’ who have been incriminated through social media.

In recent news, Rihanna's activity on Twitter and Instagram led to three arrests by Thai police. Her images and tweets from her visit to Phuket led to two people being arrested for illegal wildlife touting, while the other was charged with obscenity and operating a venue without a permit.

Heck, even Snapchat is being used by officials in certain cases. When you send a ‘Snap’ it is held on a Google-cloud server until the snap is opened, and once opened, it ‘disappears’ off of the server.

Micah Schaffer, the Head of Trust and Safety for Snapchat said: “Since May 2013, about a dozen of the search warrants we've received have resulted in us producing unopened Snaps to law enforcement. That’s out of 350 million Snaps sent every day.”

So, why are authorities increasingly using social media as a means to capture criminals? Well, it’s pretty obvious, isn't it?

Facebook users upload 350 million photos each day, Twitter users post a combined 500 million tweets per day, while Instagram’s 150 million + users upload 55 million photos every day!

This plethora of content, allied with our generation’s inclination to document every aspect of their lives online, potentially offers authorities an incredible and seemingly endless database of information about even the most intricate details of people.

But is it any surprise? As you can see from this blog post, social media is now being used for different markets, industries and institutions.

Undoubtedly, whether it is marketing or law enforcement, the power of social media is on the rise.

Do you agree with Cameron's views? Do you think that social media is becoming an effective tool in law enforcement? Let us know by either commenting on the blog post, or by getting in touch on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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My mum said, "learn from your mistakes"

    

  

I remember my parents saying to me 'learn from your mistakes', and as a child I made plenty, some I learnt from immediately and others took a little longer.

In a way, social media is a bit like childhood, it's in its infancy and we all have lots to learn and we will all make mistakes along the way. Social media has introduced a whole new way of communicating which is changing the way we interact in our personal and business lives so the quicker we can learn how to harness it and make it work for us the better, especially in a business context.

Likewise, we can learn lots from successes and what has worked for other people.

Next Friday's New Media Breakfast will be looking at a broad range of successful (and less successful) social media campaigns and explore what we can learn from them. Perhaps you can adapt something that worked for someone else and make it work for your business. Maybe you'll see something that failed that's similar to something you've done or you're planning to do.

The simple fact is, social media is new territory for most people and we should grasp at whatever knowledge and experience we can in order to avoid the pitfalls and reap the clear benefits.

I have already made the presentation in Edinburgh where it was very well received and it generated a great deal of discussion afterwards. I hope you can make it along, I look forward to seeing you all.

When and where...
Venue: 29 Member’s Club, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow
Date: Friday 25th October 2013
Time: 7.30am for 8am
Cost: £10+VAT

BOOK FOR NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST GLASGOW HERE:

No.29 MEMBERS GO FREE
If you are a 29 Member you can attend the breakfast free of charge. Please email fiona@fatbuzz.com with you membership number and he will add you to the attendance list.

We hope you can make it along to this event. If so, I look forward to seeing you on the day.

If you have found this post interesting please share it with your online community using either the Twitter, Facebook and Share buttons below. Thank You.

    

  

Five iPhone Apps To Consider

With Apple being on the media quite a lot just now, with new operating systems and new products, Social Media Account Manager, Graeme, thought he’d write about what he believes are the top five apps for your iPhone.

I was on my honeymoon when iOS7 was released, and due to having very limited access to wifi in Mexico, I had to wait until I was home to update my software.

Once I’d moved pictures and videos onto a laptop to free-up the necessary space iOS7 required, I was good to go.

Once the download and installment was complete, I was delighted; it’s almost like I’ve got a new phone.

Judging by what I’ve seen on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, I’m not alone in the pleasure iOS7 has brought apple customers.

And as the weeks have went on since the release of the new operating system, people have been drip-feeding tips and hints for ‘hidden’ functions on the system.

So, since the iPhone is the talk of the steamie just now, I thought I’d go through, what I believe, are the top five apps available for the phone.

Here are my top five apps for the iPhone:

1. Shazam

This music tagging app started out as a phone service (dial 2580 - which you can still do). Hear a song that you like while you’re out somewhere, but don’t know what it’s called or who it’s by? Just Shazam it!

When the song you want to tag is playing, simply open the app, touch the Shazam logo, and hold your phone to the speaker.

The app should tag it, tell you what it’s called and who it’s by. It even gives you the option to buy it from iTunes. Super app!

2. Twitter

By far my favourite social media platform, Twitter is great for learning celebrity gossip, arranging days/nights out with friends, and increasingly, I’ve found it a great source for news content.

With most journalists now having a Twitter account, you often find that they’ll tweet the news before official broadcasters report it.

Also, in the beginning, when I first started using the service, I found it a great way to find out who was who in the industry I wanted to work in; a great tool for making contacts in specific industries.

3. Instagram

If you're into photography in any way, this is thee app if you. A great way to capture moments, and share them with your online community, Instagram can be both fun and artistic.

Although primarily a mobile app, there's a desktop version where pictures can be viewed, although not taken.

A picture speaks a thousand words. People are more likely to look at a photograph than they are to read a bunch of text, so this platform can be used as a great we to update you community with what you’re doing.

And of course, there’s the ability to add filters, borders and share your creations onto various platforms, making it truly social. A great app.

4. Football SC (Sky Sports Score Centre)

I’m a man who loves his football, so this is a MUST for me. I won’t tell you which team I support, but with them not being on the TV that much these days (big clue there), this is sometimes the best way to keep abreast of how they’re doing.

But there’s more; the app give you access to real-time scores for many leagues in many countries, also providing league tables so you can see where your team’s latest result has left them in the table.

Essential for those who can't make it to the match!

5. BBC News

I like my news, so this is a must-have app for me. The BBC News app is pretty good, although not great. There’s quite a lot of choice on the app, but I’d like to see some more options available on it, like there is on the actual BBC News website.

Having said that, content is updated fairly regularly, and it comes packed with images and videos you can watch.

Moreover, there’s the ability to stream the BBC News channel, live, from inside the app, which is a nice touch.

Remember, these are only five apps, and there are are many more I wasn’t able to mention.

Some of you may also be surprised by some absences in my top five, the most notable being Facebook - it would definitely be in my top 10.

So, do you like my top five? Do you think my choices are nonsense? Is your top five better? What is it; I’d love to know? Email me your top five iPhone apps, listing why they’re in your top five, to graeme@fatbuzz.com. In addition, you can also find me on Twitter, @Geddes16, so you can let me know there too - and don't forget to follow me while you're at it!

You can also let us know on the fatBuzz Facebook and Twitter pages, so get 'liking' and 'following', and have your say.

Also, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, @Geddes16.

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