Facebook Vs Twitter

Digital Surgeons, an online marketing agency, collected useful data and built the below info-graphic.

Facebook and Twitter are the two biggest social applications; Facebook is by far the biggest social network in the world with over 500 million users while Twitter has ‘only’ 109 millions. Impressively both of them are still growing. 

Twitter and Facebook seemed very different in the beginning, but when looking at it from a marketing standpoint they both have the same objectives.

Click image to enlarge

This is the last post of the year so i take the opportunity to wish you all a fantastic 2011!

How do you handle negative comments?

Social media is beautiful as usually fans, followers or "likers" post nice and gratifying comments; but what about when we find a nasty comment? How do we reply to those? 

If you have a personal blog or Facebook profile i guess that would not be a problem as you could easily reply depending on your mood, but if you're managing a corporate blog, or your company Facebook page or Twitter then it all becomes a little more complex.

We have seen several cases (Nestle, Dell, Omantel, Nawras, Gap, etc.) where companies cannot handle negative comments or feedback and the person representing them simply loses it making things even worse. What do you do when you find someone that regularly tries to damage your image or reputation?

This below is a easy to follow chart which works in most cases.

As a last option you can always get in touch with the person by sending a message. What you should not do ever is to delete comments unless they are offensive to other fans or generally inappropriate.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A blue (or rather green) Christmas from Volkswagen

Volkswagen Italia came up with an original Christmas idea as an incentive to recycle paper and plastic. As during the Xmas festivities we all waste more paper this ambient campaign invites everyone to think, and act, for a better environment. 

This recycle bin immediately gives a little gift, which you can then place onto your Christmas tree, in exchange of paper or plastic . Have a look at video, it is in Italian but you'll get the point.

This is part of a bigger campaign launch by Volkswagen in 2009, the Fun Theory, which concept is to make life simpler by doing useful and enjoyable actions. I have briefly introduced it sometime ago (how clever is this?) but I'll talk about it in more depth in one of my next posts.

I love these guys at Volkswagen as they are always creative and effective; you might in fact recall the Volkswagen Banknote Campaign.

Viral images 2010

Here follow a few popular images you probably came across on the Internet this year...

 

Hole-y refreshing

I was watching the news last night and saw how Europe is currently covered in snow and that reminded me of Polo mints, the sweets known for their ice cold effect. 

Early this year the agency JWT in London came up with this cool ambient campaign. They created a Polo snow stamp which, when stamped in thick fresh snow, left a near perfect replica of the iconic mint, illustrating the white, fresh nature of the mint.

 

 

 

How cool is that? People can argue that placing stamps in snow has been done before in advertising, but the execution of this one is remarkably good. The campaign has won a Gold Outdoor Lion at Cannes International Advertising Festival 2010.

By the way, did you know that 38 million Polos are produced everyday and more than 140 are eaten every second?!

A social network for a good cause

The growing trend of websites established to drive the internet population into doing good actions with their spare time has brought us a new social network, Jumo.

Jumo aims at make it easier for people to connect with the professionals working in a lot of fields in order to make changes happen. It was launched a few weeks ago by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.

How does Jumo works? You will need your Facebook login name to connect with thousands of good causes and keep up to date with those you feel most passionate about.

Registration is fast and simple; on the homepage simply click “Sign Up” and Jumo will request permission to access your Facebook data. Click “Allow” and you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll need to fill in a short form with the usual registration data. Once you’re done click “Create my Account” to finalise the process.

Next you’ll be required to choose which issues you are most interested in before Jumo suggests who and what to follow. There are seven topics to rate and choose from.

Then you'll be able to choose what projects you want to follow:

Once you’re done with that you’ll be taken to your main page where you’ll see updates on the projects you’re interested in, suggested projects and issues, which all have their own pages, and much more.

I think that as a service designed to raise awareness and help individuals choose causes that are right for them, Jumo works. Whether it’ll be successful that depends on how the projects and causes engage the audience so only time will tell.

Good initiative though!

A hot Japanese case for Google

A woman in Fukuoka, Japan, is suing Google for causing psychological distress after discovering that an online search for her street address brought up a photo of her underwear hanging out on her balcony.

She is now asking for a compensation of 600,000 Yen (about 2,750 OMR) as she already had a form of obsessive compulsive disorder before seeing the photo, and after seeing it her symptoms worsened. Because of that she was also fired from the hospital where she worked, and moved to a new residence.

Google simply said that they're looking into it.

Apparently the picture of the underwear was not taken by Google, but was posted on a third party's website and linked to in Google's search results.

This is not a strong case against Google and she should probably be suing the person that uploaded the photo rather than Google, maybe all she's aiming at is some $$$$?

What would you do if you find an embarrassing photo of you being posted online?

Creativity, miniskirts and law enforcement

Three words that you don't always find them in the same sentence.

Creativity is described as that mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. I love creative people whether creativity is used in art, design or even to enforce the law as in this case. 

So I came across this article where in several Czech towns the traffic police started a road safety campaign by using life-sized cardboards of female police officers in miniskirts with the aim to slow down speeding drivers.

Apparently this new police force is being successful as drivers automatically slow down when they see such officers (maybe the ROP could do something similar here?).

What is funny though is that a local radio, probably to gain some publicity, provided a hat and an anorak to help such officer get warm, but they were stolen in a day. Others made it away with the cardboard officer itself!!

Domino's goes interactive and educational

The website will take consumers on an interactive journey with 10 Domino’s ingredients.

Consumers will be able to see real farms, discover real stories and earn points by playing mini-games, viewing photos or watching a short story of how each ingredient lands on their pizza.

This game comes as a continued initiative for transparency for the Domino’s brand as it showcases its new, fresher ingredients and pizza construction methods. Basically Domino’s is trying to dispel what appear to be incorrect perceptions from much of its potential audience – the idea that cheese on its pizza is not natural, or made from processed ingredients.

Also, points collected will be redeemable for real-life Domino’s prizes (gift cards, free upgrades and items).

FCUK launches Youtique

YouTube gets more than 1 billion views a day and more and more companies are realising how important is to be there in a cool and original way.

Youtique, by French Connection, is a very clever way of taking the current trend around video based fashion tips and stylists. It is probably the world’s first ever personal shopping experience on Youtube.

If you want to know what to wear in the office or the best outfit for an evening out Youtique may just become your new best friend. Stylist Louise Roe will give you tips and tricks on how to make the most of your style this season – plus, there’s a handy widget that shows you all the products featured in the video.

Designed to give those lacking in fashion sense a sense of confidence, the channel will aim to boost consumer awareness on all trendy things. However, it will not only provide fashion advice, but also will link to French Connection’s portal for safe online shopping.

Once again this is an innovative new way to reach out to consumers using the most current medium. If you recall a few months back I posted about a similar idea “A simple idea generates a genius website!!”

lulz dnt no wut ur tlkn abt

Internet slang is coined and popularised to save time on keystrokes. It saves time to the writer but does it save time to the reader?

It might be really hard especially for older people to understand this "words" and a website was created to help parents get a better understanding of this new language which is widely used across the world. 

Here below is a list of popular internet slang, acronyms or abbreviations which are commonly used by many internet users as well as when sending a SMS.

AAP: Always A Pleasure

AAK: Alive And Kicking

AAYF: As Always, Your Friend

A3: Anywhere, Any time, Any place

ABD: Already Been Done

ABN: *sshole By Nature

ABT: Absolutely, About

AFK: Away From the Keyboard

AYSOS: Are You Stupid Or Something?

B4: Before

BRB: Be right back

BTW: By the way

Cuz: Because

CYA: See you

Dat: That

Der: There

Dunno: Don’t know

G2G / GTG: Got to go

GAL: Get a Life

GFY: Good for you

GG: Good Game, Good Going

HAND: Have A Nice Day

HS: Holy Sh*t!

IC: I See

ILY / ILU: I love you

IMHO: In My Honest Opinion

KL: Kool, cool

L8R: Later

LMAO: Laughing My *ss Off

lol: Laughing Out Loud

M8: Mate

NP: No Problem

Nvm: Never mind

O3: Out of office

OMG: Oh my God! / Oh my Goodness!

OT: Off topic

Plz, Pls:  Please

PPL: People

ROFL: Rolling On the Floor Laughing

SSDD:  Same Sh*t, Different Day

SUP: What’s up?

TTYL: Talk To You Later

W8: Wait

WB: Welcome Back

WTF: What the F**k

YSVW: You are So Very Welcome

YW: You are Welcome

I’m sure i did not include lots of others so feel free to add them, thnx.

Xmas magic with Ferrero

Christmas is approaching and this is a really nice way to communicate and interact with your customers.

Ferrero came up with a Christmas three made of 12,000 chocolate pieces and anyone can get a taste! They even have a snow machine to recreate  the Christmas magical atmosphere. 

A traditional brand using a modern approach, just great. Check the video out, everyone is loving it!

I wonder how long it'll last...