Hootsuite Case Study - Audience Engagement

Not sure why this wouldn't let me digg it so putting it on the bloggy space.  WARNING this is a work related post. Turn away now if wanky marketing words and social media buzz phrases cause internal bleeding and rage.

Electric Artists & HootSuite ~ An Audience Engagement Case Study

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Wanky Word Cloud

As lame and overused as they are, I thought a word cloud would look nice up there on my bloggy space. I told you I was going to take this thing seriously! Once a month I'm going to update the word cloud, and hopefully words other than my love for cheesecake and cassata cakes will dominate the cloud.

But who knows, strawberries are smelling pretty.darn.good. in London this time of year which puts me in baking mode. I'm not even much of a baker, but when I do, it's delicious.

Speaking of delicious, apparently I can still have my delicious account, says Yahoo! So if you're interested in what I've been cooking and want to try, here are some recipes: http://www.delicious.com/osusmermaid05

UPDATED 29MAY2011: I decided the word cloud was never going to look the way I wanted it to, so I spent about an hour using wordle and changing the frequency to get the words that I think best describe my new vision for the bloggy space. I'm pretty proud of it!

Social Media Events in London

Just copy and pasting what I saw in this Mashable article this AM. Wanted to have all of London in one place.

November 11, 2010, London, UK: The first London Social Gaming Summit is a one day event focused on the intersection of games and the social web. The event focuses on helping social games developers build, monetize, and grow their social games. We’re bringing together the leaders in free-to-play games, social networking, and payments infrastructure for a full day of panels and talks.

November 12, 2010, London, UK: The first London Virtual Goods Summit is a one day event focused on the emerging market opportunity for virtual goods and economies. Once restricted to the world of online gaming, virtual goods and currencies are beginning to influence the development of social networks, community sites, and many other new and exciting markets. The market for virtual goods continues to grow – join us for engaging talks and panels designed to highlight important trends in this fast growing market. This is a must-attend event for those in the games, social media, and entertainment markets. Register now with the promo code MASHABLE010 for 15% off!

November 15–18, 2010, London, UK: Europe’s definitive customer strategy experience. Focusing on the strategy behind the concept of loyalty, Loyalty World will provide you with the insight and tools to develop the ultimate loyalty initiative to support your business goals and add measurable value to your bottom line. Loyalty World will examine the relationship between your brand and your customers, look at what drives consumer behaviour, and help you understand how you can identify and harness new trends and tools to really drive engagement. Loyalty World attracts participants from some of the world’s most reputable brands. With speakers from retail, financial services, travel, leisure, utilities and telecoms, you will gain cross-transferable loyalty insights and experiences that will help rejuvenate your loyalty strategy, attract, engage and retain customers, and strengthen your market. Register here and SAVE 10%.

November 15, 2010, London, UK: The Social Technology Not for Profit Summit ’10 caters specifically for those that work in or on behalf of charities and not-for-profit organizations. We’re bringing you answers to the big questions across the industry, discussing how to make the most of little or no budget, and how to utilize social media to turn supporters into advocates. This event will bring you practical advice with a human perspective and tangible takeaways that you can implement seamlessly into your not for profit organization. Register and use the promo code mash80 for an additional 20% off the ticket price.

November 15, 2010, London, UK: The virtual goods model is the revenue-generating sensation that is taking the world by storm, from games publishers to media companies, from social-networking sites to consumer brands. The Virtual Goods World Europe 2010 promises to be the next step for your business! Major brands will come together to discuss the opportunities presented by the rise of virtual goods. Social networking sites will participate, to learn more from the brands and create business models for the future. Games publishers and developers will learn best practice customer acquisition strategies. All participants will learn new opportunities presented by advances in alternative payment systems. Register now with the promo code VGWMASH and save 10%!

November 17-18, 2010, London, UK: The Corporate Social Media Summit is a two-day conference focused exclusively on how big businesses can use social media to enhance their marketing/comms strategy. The conference is tailored exclusively to a corporate – not a social media – audience. It features 20+ senior executives from European corporations speaking – including Vodafone, Honda, Nokia, Cadbury, PepsiCo and more. 14 in-depth, interactive workshops deliver best practice examples and practical next steps from companies that have already experienced marketing/comms success using social media. For our brochure, click here. Register and use the promo code MSH200 to save £200 off the ticket price .

November 24, 2010, London, UK: The New Brand Rules: Capitalising On The Online & Social Media Space – Following the success of our inaugural social media event in July, we will explore the issues of control, measurement and understanding of your brand’s reputation online that will drive ROI and business success. This event offers marketers an unrivalled opportunity to come face-to-face with experts from a variety of brands at various points of their social media and online strategies to thrash out these and other pressing questions. Please click here for more information.

November 25, 2010, London, UK: BrightLemon Drupal Training – Introducing Drupal (London): This Drupal course quickly gets you up to speed with building dynamic database-driven websites with Drupal (). It begins with a basic introduction into the main concepts behind Content Management Systems (CMS) and the types of websites they are meant to help create. We then map these concepts onto Drupal as a CMS and take you through installation to creations of a series of websites – each one adding an additional layer of functionality. Buy tickets here.

November 25, 2010, London, UK: The media and marketing industry’s Global GREEN Awards 2010 recognise and reward creative work that communicates the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainable development and ethical best practice in any sector and across any marketing discipline. Now in its fifth year the GREEN AWARDS™ are going Global, this year for the first time, all the categories are opened for entry from all over the world. The Awards illustrate the crucial role that needs to be played by green marketing and sustainability communications in informing people about green issues, products and lifestyle choices, and showcase examples of excellence and best practice in communicating sustainability and green issues. The Awards are now open for entry. For more information about the 16 categories and entry process, please visit http://www.greenawards.co.uk.

November 25, 2010, London, UK: The Digital Brand Strategy Summit is designed to create a unique showcase from leading brands and industry experts on how to create, launch and implement an effective Digital Marketing Strategy for your brand. During this one day event delegates will be presented with strategic information, case studies and hot tips enabling delegates to walk away with a clear understanding of the digital concept and the knowledge and tools necessary to deliver an effective strategy.

November 30, 2010 – Dec. 2, 2010, London, UK: Online Information is the largest UK event dedicated to the information industry. Taking place in the Grand Hall at London’s Olympia, the exhibition attracts more than 9,000 visitors each year from around the world. This unique, free to attend event consists of an exhibition with more than 200 international exhibitors alongside an extensive seminar programme. Online Information covers 6 core segments: Content Resources, ePublishing Solutions, Library Management, Content Management, Search Solutions and Social Media, providing an annual meeting place for this global industry. Mashable readers may register to attend here.

November 30-December 1, 2010, London, UK: Apps World aims to address the entire app ecosystem and the challenge of delivery, development and design of apps across multiple platforms. The event will bring together leading operators and app stores worldwide, and draw in parallels between the mobile & TV app platforms. Register now to receive the early-bird discount.

November 30, 2010, London, UK: Social Recruiting Conference will gather together leading employers and recruitment industry professionals, to passionately discuss and practically demonstrate the power of Social Recruiting. The conference will be unlike any other Social Media Recruiting conferences you have attended. Our aim is to take the talk from theory to practice; and shift conversations from hype and hope to reality and results. #SRCONF will focus on Social Recruiting case studies, with measurable ROIs. Save 10% when you register with the code MASH10 at http://www.srconf.com.

November 30, 2010, London, UK: Hear how 21 heavyweight brands, including Facebook, Sainsbury’s, Google-YouTube, COI, King of Shaves, Motorola, JustGiving, BBC, Volvo, M&S, FT, Jaguar, Eurostar and Santander are demonstrating real results from social media at the Social Media Results For PR & Comms Conference. Tried and tested strategies to genuinely engage audiences, fully embed and integrate social media practices and clearly demonstrate real results. Mashable readers receive a £150 discount with the promo code MASHABLE if you book before August 19. Click here to download the conference brochure.

December 1, 2010, London, UK: The Mobile Cloud Computing Forum will provide a full perspective of mobile cloud computing and SaaS from business value through integration and implementation and to the emergent trends in the industry. Meet some of the best known mobile cloud computing and SaaS professionals in person and exchange your experiences. Register with promo code MCMASH20 and save 20%!

Anyone interested in going to any of them?

UAE Bans Communication

Recently, my boyfriend left for two weeks to Abu Dhabi to visit his family.  Normally, when he leaves we at least exchange Facebook messages if he can't text or e-mails if we're really desperate.  I was a bit surprised when he'd been gone for a week-and-a-half and I had yet to hear from him!

I'm not sure how I, social media uber geek, forgot about the dramas they had with Blackberry and didn't put 2+2 together.  But this was just a mobile phone, it didn't explain why there were no e-mails going through either.  However, we were able to communicate through his Hotmail account. A quick Google search and I found an article saying that they were possibly blocking Google mail thanks to the reintroduction of Google Voice! As progressive as UAE likes to make itself, one can forget that they have a [somewhat valid] concern for smart phone capabilities.  The boyfriend also has a Skype based phone, which would explain why his phone would not work at all - VoIP.

Because of the UAE response to this form of communication, it reminded me of something I mentioned before (I haven't archived my tweets so it's a bit hard to find).  I was concerned that studying politics and focusing on social media would be an unlikely pair.  However, the more I work in this industry, and the more governments respond to social media's existence, I realise that they are quite compatible.  I think while my educational background taught me focus on countries such as China, India and Iran as the major political actors, my interest in social media is linking those concerns with the Google, Apple and Microsoft issues of the world.  The further we move with social media and Internet technologies, the more involved politics will become in these matters.

How worried do you think the UAE should be of Internet communication?

Social Media Virus

I wanted to try and keep the tone of this blog a bit more on politics and social media, but given the environment of my current internship I'm venturing into an unknown territory.

After I read this article I felt it was very much appropriate to blog on the topic. Last night I had a discussion with a few friends on how useless they viewed some forms of social media to be. They saw it as a space for shouting out the trivial moments of our unimportant lives and trying to make it something it's not. While there are some people that use these forms of communication to tell everyone how they just ate a cheeseburger, I think critics, or people who don't truly understand social media, are missing the point.

There are the people who use it rather casually, but the majority of users making the most noise in this setting aren't just shouting "OMG i painted my toenails today!" You'll find that these key influencers are posting photos of restaurants and food they really liked, or tagging a geo-location to somewhere they saw a really cool street performer, or providing traditional news media with the material that they'll be reporting later that evening, as the average citizen was the actual first person on the scene. The point is, social media isn't just a space that's being used to play Farmville and 'tell people every detail of your life'. Those that have embraced the features of the various platforms understand that it's more about sharing information and connecting with people around the globe.

I really liked the opening story to the article I've linked. It pretty much sums up how important social media is to our daily lives. It's the point I make in my dissertation and it seems to be the point that other sectors are making as well. It's not a fad, it's not something only for teens or hipsters; social media has spread and made the shift to connecting our digital life to our real life.


[LINK TO ARTICLE] - http://bit.ly/9dyrbp
Another article, talking about people who don't understand Social Media/Twitter - http://bit.ly/aEiRe4  
one more on ppl that love to hate twitter - http://bit.ly/cUWtUN


What do you think? Are social media sites just a glorified digital ego trip, or is there real value in the somewhat utopian freedom of speech open zone?

The Curious Case of The Huffington Post

Surely I'm not the only one who is wondering 'WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO THE HUFFINGTON POST?!'


I feel as if it wasn't very long ago, where the majority of the updates on this site were intelligible and had real substance.  Now I only see headlines proclaiming "Justin Long: I love performing oral sex" or "Christina Aguilera wears light-up heart on her crotch". Really HuffPo??? Really??! Are you that desperate for an audience that you need to bring yourself to Perez Hilton's domain? I was following @huffingtonpost on Twitter, but I've had to unfollow and move them just to a list... my news list, so I could have my Twitter timeline back.  Although, I'm thinking they aren't even deserving of this category!  Occasionally I'll get an update that sounds like news. People following the oil spill (we should just call this an oil dumping by the way, there was no 'spill'...but that's another blog) will definitely be intrigued by the "Dead, oiled birds reported for the first time in Texas" headline.  But if that doesn't catch your attention, the following tweet about a couple getting married in a shark tank, must!


Now I'm the last person to knock the efforts of social media, HuffPo is classified as a blog at the end of the day.  However, I'm having a hard time seeing them as a credible source of information when they share breaking news with TMZ.


All is not sour with HuffPo - you are able to connect with your Facebook, Yahoo!, Google or Twitter accounts without having to make an additional HuffPo account.  On top of being able to comment, you can also "like" and/or share the article through one simple click - and even retweet on Twitter.  And of course, the other "share' familiars are there, with Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon and the likes.  These are all great tools to engage the reader with your site.


Having said that, Arianna Huffington has a great sense of connecting with the audience through social media.  Yet, it would be nice for the "Internet Newspaper" to report and highlight a bit more news-worthy topics more often.

Following the Trend

Well, it's been a long time since this was last updated. Many reasons for that: nothing I felt I was worthy to blog about, moving to a new country, starting my Masters etc...

I've recently decided what direction I'd like to see this blog move in the future. As my dissertation will be focusing on the role of Social Media in politics - particularly citizen empowerment and participatory democracy - in the coming months, keep a look out for some entries on my findings. I'll post and review some of my 'favourite' (hey, I'm in the UK now, gotta blend) sites from Web 2.0 and see how YOU are using them.

In the meantime, I've got some major essays to submit within the next week, so, no post just yet.

Here I go again...

Well this is round 5 of the blog world. It's almost annoying how many different types of blogs you can have or opportunities to create them come along. I'm pretty positive I've had one for nearly every site possible. From Deadjournal to Yahoo, on topics from bitching to travel, seriously pick a letter I've had a blog by them. And I seem to start each blog out the same way. Complaining about how I've created yet another. The problem is they've always been a spin on personal diaries, a place for me to publicly relay what I really didn't care was private or not.

I want this blog to be different, full of "Coherent Ramblings". No longer will I blog on what [or who?!] I did this weekend, no more a play-by-plays on my day-to-day, or anything else that makes up the petty disturbances of life. Our brains are more intelligent than that! I may occasionally go back to my xanga [edit 19APR10]Twitter to complain about the latest goss, but let's be honest, one can only handle a limit of Perez-esque topics before one loses all of one's brain cells. No, this blog will have substance. My interests are wide yet simple. From the Arts to Politics to Recipes I want this blog to be a global conversation of topics that are shared throughout the world. And if they're not I'd want to discuss that reason as well.

I would also like to test out this whole "vlog" idea. Gotta keep up with the kids haha. I'm not so good with the video editing yet so I apologize in advance but I think it's a great medium.

I hope that by viewing this you will find the need to participate and it encourages you to find your own thoughts and interests in this world filled with endless possibilities.