This was the question posed by Deanna Lee of The New York Public Library (NYPL) at Blogtalk 2010 last week. The NYPL has recently been acclaimed for its effective use of social media. As the Vice-President for Communications and Marketing Deanna Lee came to Blogtalk 2010 to show how a traditional institution such as a public library utilised social media to spread awareness as well as run campaigns.

Deanna Lee knew they would have to go beyond a Facebook page to get the library’s message across. So they embarked on an online communications strategy than spanned across numerous platforms. The library wrote not only their own blog but also wrote posts for the well known blog the Huffington Post. They wrote about hard news but also maximised the appeal of soft news through their blog and micro-blogs on Twitter.

Deanna’s strategy went further than just blogging, everyone knows the appeal of viral video the problem is coming up with the concept that makes the video popular enough to go viral. While many institutions can afford to pay for celebrity endorsed videos these often don’t provide enough ‘bang for your buck’. Instead the NYPL invited the well know improve group Improv Everywhere to come and perform in their library. I am sure you have seen the video which has received almost three million hits on YouTube, and shows the ghostbusters chasing down ghosts in the NYPL. The video was fun and interesting and took the library out of the ‘normal’ perception that people have about libraries.

The real value of social media kicked in for the New York Public library when budget cuts of $37 million of funding were looming. The New York Public Library pushed their social media up a gear with the ‘Don’t Close the Book’ campaign. A supporters micro-site was set up where people were able to send a letter protesting at the budgets cuts on behalf of their local branch. The map on the site signified all of the branches by dots which grew as the number of letters grew also.

The library needed more traffic to the site so another viral video was concocted. This time it was the turn of Tillman the skateboarding dog. Tillman also happened to be looking for a long corridor to attempt to break the world record for fastest skateboarding dog so it was a win-win for all involved. People of course went wild for the video and the campaign got some great exposure. The campaign over all was a huge success, with over 130,000 letters sent and $144,000 worth of funding was raised. In the end an incredible $27 of $37 million of proposed cuts was recouped.

So what did the library get right? Well it all comes down to Deanna’s first question, are you being interesting? Is the content you are creating worthwhile? Content must be meaningful to people on some level for it to be successful online. Another element of the NYPL’s campaign was that it was a people’s campaign, libraries are a public service and people did not want to see their local branch close. Individuals became personally involved because the message meant something to them. They uploaded videos, there was an independent Facebook page set up and many schools created artwork to show their support.

All of this boils down to ‘engagement’, one of the founding principles for social media and the reason many companies don’t get it right. It does not matter what tools you use to connect with people but without engagement your campaign will never get off the ground.

Digg

Last week the new version of Digg was taken out of beta testing and set live for the world to enjoy. We first heard about Digg version 4 about four or five months ago at the South by South West Interactive Conference in America when then CEO Jay Aldelson hinted at new features like personalised feeds among other things. Jay Aldelson has since left Digg and was replaced as CEO by founder Kevin Rose.

According to Mashable the new version of Digg focuses on delivering a more personalised experience for the user. The overhauled social network now boasts quicker loading times as well as a “My News” feature (replacing the “Digg Effect”) which displays stories that have been dugg and submitted by people you follow. These are then displayed directly onto your homepage. Other new and improved features include the prominence of the Digg it button which sits at the top right of the page. Once you select a link that you want to Digg, the site will import titles and images and let you write a description of the link making it easy for fellow Diggers to understand and Digg the link.

The homepage has also been redesigned. At the top left of the interface are two tabs, Top News and My News (mentioned above) which is the default homepage for all users. The main difference between the old and new Digg is that now content on your homepage is submitted by people you follow as opposed to the larger Digg community making it more relevant for you. It also now focuses on which of your friend’s dugg the link as opposed to submitted it which is more in keeping with the brand. You can see a screen shot of the new Digg below.

New Digg Homepage

However for those of you who are not such big fans of change the Top News feature pulls articles and links from the wider Digg community and is basically the same as the older version so there’s no need to worry.

Over all I think the new Digg looks cool and it is definitely more user friendly than the previous version. In the same way Facebook took inspiration for its Places platform from Foursquare, Digg are definitely using Twitter as their mews when it comes to finding and suggesting people to follow. Digg have created suggested user lists that divide diggers up into categories in the same way Twitter does but unfortunately there isn’t as much choice as there is on Twitter due to the fact that Twitter simply has more users.

Below is a cool video of Kevin Rose introducing the features of Digg Version 4. In my opinion it is definitely an improvement and although it isn’t perfect it makes finding content that is relevant to you a lot easier. I definitely digg the new Digg but unfortunately still prefer twitter. Have a look and see what you think. As always please leave your thoughts, they are all welcome.

Kevin Rose explains the new Digg

It is here, well almost anyway. Last night Facebook launched their plans for their location based service called ‘places’.  You will be able to ‘check in’ to businesses and other locations much like foursquare so that your friends will be able to see where you are at that time. You will also be able to add locations (such as your own house) and tag friends who are there with you.

Unfortunately the service is not launched over here yet. Facebook has said they hope to launch in the U.S in the next few days so when can we expect the feature over here? I had a look around online and there are no confirmed rumours of an official launch here in Europe so I guess we will just have to sit it out. Also only those mobile users with an iPhone will be able to use the service for now.

A great tweet as seen on another digital blog read “What do you get when you combine Foursquare with Facebook? Facebook.” I myself do have a foursquare account but I will admit to never actually ‘checking in’. With a Twitter account, Facebook account, numerous email accounts and some real life friends too I felt another account would be a bit cumbersome. However Facebook are slowly answering the call from the future for integration of all of these services. With a location based service within Facebook, I can see users who have never even heard of foursquare adopting this service quite quickly.

Where does this leave Foursquare, Yelp and other location based services? Current Foursquare users are unlikely to use both. The proposed Facebook service does allow you to pull your ‘check in’ through to Facebook but why bother when you can just do it all on Facebook. The real issue comes down to whether Facebook will make it both easy and safe to use.

Privacy of course has been heralded as an issue as Facebook have been put through the grinder recently. Check ins will appear by default on your profile and in the news feed for that place. Your friends can, by default, check you in without your explicit approval or permission. There are settings to customize all of this but it will all mainly appear in the ‘customize settings’ on your privacy page. Perhaps this should have been all made available when you first open new ‘places’ page to avoid the inevitable confusion.

So what does this mean for social media marketers? We can expect more innovation in campaigns, similar to the Dominos campaign mentioned by Kevin in his recent Foursquare post. Businesses have been crying out for this service for a long time and now that it is here it will have to be utilised correctly. There are great opportunities for developers as businesses can claim ownership of a particular location if it is their site. There will also be great prospects for the integration of offline and online campaigns as locations are made available.

This is the type of service that Facebook will need to continue to release in order to defy its critics that say its day in the sun cannot last. With over 500 million members worldwide, (we can now pinpoint these!) it is only a matter of time before Facebook release their business model for ‘places’ that will no doubt have some form of advertising. In my opinion the only direction Facebook is heading is up. So what do you think? Would you use this service? Would you forgo using Facebook for Foursqaure? Let us know your thoughts.

By now we all know what Twitter is and why there is such a buzz around it. It can be a bit daunting figuring out how to get started and who to follow. In the last year there have been a number of lists released by various people and institutions about who the most influential Irish twitterers are. These lists can be a great jumping off point, but we here at Radical/Pembroke took a casual approach and had a whip round the offices for the staff’s favourite Irish twits.

Don’t worry, we didn’t just let them run riot with their choices. We generated a shortlist and then analysed them using a neat little tool called ‘tweetlevel’, developed by global PR firm Edelman. The tool evaluates each twitter user name on four factors influence, popularity, engagement and trust. For more technical information about what elements feed into your tweetlevel visit the site here.

Our list threw up some of the usual suspects including Damien Mulley, but we also got a few surprises too. Some of the more interesting tweeters are the people further down the list that are not always top of mind. By combining the interests of a PR company and a digital agency we have created a very interesting mix of influential individuals online in Ireland. We hope that whether you are a first time tweeter or an experienced twitterer there is something new for you in this list.

So here is the list of our top tweeters in Ireland arranged by the ‘tweetlevel’ tool.

 
Twitterer       Twitter                                   Tweetlevel

1. Arse Blog   http://twitter.com/arseblog   68

This is a great Irish based blog about Arsenal Football Club and all things football. This guy has over 11,000 followers on his twitter and is great for the engagement especially during matches. Take note new tweeters!

 
2. Damien Mulley  http://twitter.com/damienmulley  66

No Irish list is complete without Mulley. Tweetlevel has ranked him high and with good reason. Definitely worth following no matter what industry you are in.

 
3. Darragh Doyle   https://twitter.com/darraghdoyle  65

Darragh Doyle is communications manager over at Boards.ie. Loves his Twitter. Watch out for the bad jokes though.

4. Dave Moore   http://twitter.com/Dave98FM  65

Dave does the 98fm morning show. Tweets consistently during the show and after. He will always follow you back and interact, a really approachable guy.

 
5. Mark Little   https://twitter.com/marklittlenews   63

There is a great buzz around RTE’s Mark Little and his new venture Storyful. Often tweets social media industry news, but his fondness for current affairs remains intact.

 
6. Krishne De  http://twitter.com/KrishnaDe    63

Hardcore digital industry guru runs a great blog; she lives and works in Ireland. 26,000 followers can’t be wrong.

 
7. Pat Phelan  https://twitter.com/patphelan   63

Pat is an Irish tech expert. He runs a very approachable blog that looks at technology news from an Irish perspective. Tweets advice and often helps out with techie problems.

 
8. Sharon Corr  http://twitter.com/Sharon_Corr   61

Yes the Irish violin sensation is on Twitter. Sharon tweets her day-to-day goings on and often interacts with fans. Bono can’t even say that.

 
9. Redfly   http://twitter.com/redfly    60

Refly marketing are big in the online industry, specialise in PPC and search.

 
10. Nialler9  https://twitter.com/nialler9    60

This needs no intro to music lovers or fellow tweeters. Nialler9 is the editor of State magazine and is a must follow for all Irish music fans

11. David Cochrane http://twitter.com/davidcochrane   59

Founder of the politics forum politics.ie. He sparks the odd debate with a politician, makes for great tweeting.

 
12. Una Mullally  http://twitter.com/UnaMullally   58

Una is a journalist for the Tribune and frankly hilarious on Twitter. Bio: So I left a monkey in your fridge….

 
13. The Irish Times https://twitter.com/the_irish_times   56

It is always handy to have a least one purely headline tweeter in your feed. This is one of the best, simple and to the point

 
14. Frank Fitzgibbon https://twitter.com/FrankSunTimes   56

Editor of the Irish Sunday Times. Irish Sunday Times doesn’t appear to have Twitter so this isn’t a bad substitute.

 
15. Silicon Republic http://twitter.com/siliconrepublic   56

This is another great technology website. It’s not quite as personable as Pat Phelan’s but still definitely worth the read.

 
16. Conor Pope   http://twitter.com/conor_pope   56

Conor Pope is the Irish Times Pricewatch editor and avid tweeter.

17. Pj Gallagher   http://twitter.com/pjgallagher   55

If only for a little humor in your day, Pj along with other Irish comedic legends such as Des Bishop are all tweet maniacs too. They often run competitions for tickets to their shows too.

18. Justin Parks  https://twitter.com/justinparks   55

Justin is an Irish social media guru living in Spain. Worth adding to your social media list to see what he is up to.
19. Ger Gilroy  https://twitter.com/gergilroy    54

Ger is a sports editor and works for Newstalk, great engagement, surprised he wasn’t higher up the list.

 
20. Irish Internet Association https://twitter.com/iia   54

An obvious one for anyone in the industry has huge influence and trust associated with it.

 
21. Ray Foley  https://twitter.com/rayfoleyshow   52

This one was mentioned by a few in the offices, personal favourite for a bit of radio tweeting. His blog is great for a laugh too. Love the show Ray!

 
22. Made in Hollywood http://twitter.com/madeinhollywood  50

This has to be one of the greatest examples of how any company can use social media regardless of their product offering. Made in Hollywood supply innovative polystyrene foam solutions to a number of industries. Yes, polystyrene foam.

 
23. Sarah Kavanagh https://twitter.com/slkav    50

Sarah is lead designer with social media firm Simply Zesty and has her own personal photoblog too.

 
24. Culch.ie  http://twitter.com/Culch_ie    49

This is a great pop culture blog from Ireland. They are not as active on the engagement side of things but it is a great entertainment blog.

25. Brand Ireland   https://twitter.com/BrandIreland   48

These guys provide great insights into Irish marketing and PR. The blog is very readable even if marketing is not your primary interest.

 
26. GAA_Beo  https://twitter.com/GAA_BEO   46

Guess what they tweet about? They don’t engage very often but do provide great GAA coverage so a must for all fans.

 
27. Richard Fitzgerald https://twitter.com/fitzyrichard   46

This is an Irish guy living in London working in social media. Has a great blog http://52burritodates.com/ where he is taking 26 different girls out on burrito date over a year. One of them included Laura Whitmore.
28. Electric Picnic  https://twitter.com/electricpicnic    37

Most of the big Irish festivals have Twitters this year. Oxegen have a live Twitter wall up by the main stage this year. Fingers crossed the picnic will take their lead.
 

29. Blanaid  https://twitter.com/blanaidhennessy  32

This is one of our favorite fashion bloggers. Unfortunately, not as active on Twitter as we would like hence to low score, but the blog is really great.

 
30. Social Media Ire https://twitter.com/SocialMediaIRE   32

This is a great independent pit stop for anyone interested in social media in Ireland. Could utilize twitter a little better through interaction but always comes up with good reads.

So there you have it, this is by no means a definitive list, just the people we like to see in our feed. Don’t forget to add Irishmediawatch and Radicaldublin to your Twitter feed too. We would love to hear from you. Tell us who your favourite Irish twits are!

Foursquare, the latest social network on the block is back in the headlines this week. The British Telegraph reported yesterday (Monday 19^th of July) that Foursquare is in talks with “everyone”, including the three major search engine giants Google, Yahoo and Microsoft regarding a data partnership.

The location based social networking site was founded by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai in March 2009. Foursquare describes itself as “a mobile application that is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide, and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things”. The platform is supported by iPhone, Blackberry and Android mobile devices and third party versions of the application are available for other smart phones. The main functionality of Foursquare allows users to become friends with one another (much like facebook), update your status, leave recommendations for friends and “check in”. Checking in is basically when you tell Foursquare where you are at any particular time. This can be as general as a city or as specific as a coffee shop. This is where Foursquare becomes really fun because if you check into the same place more than anybody else you become mayor of that place.

It is this feature (checking in) that has brought Foursquare into the mainstream and created a following that reached two million users last week only three months after it reached one million users. As I reported in my last post, many brands have been using Foursquare and its check in system to increase foot flow and boost sales by offering various discounts to consumers who check in. These brands often give substantially bigger prizes to the mayor of a particular outlet. Notable brands to do this include Starbucks, Ann Taylor and Oscar De La Renta.

Capitalising on the quick success of Foursquare one of its owners, Dennis Crowley spoke exclusively to the British Telegraph to clarify the rumours that surround these talks with the major players in the search field. Crowley was quoted as saying “Our data generates hugely interesting trends which would enrich search”. He went on say that “we can anonymise data (make data anonymous) and use it to show venues which are trending at that moment. Twitter helped the world and the search engines know what people are talking about. Foursquare would allow people to search for the types of place people are going to – and where is trending – not what”.

While there is no set time frame for a deal with any particular company Crowley reported that it was an exciting time for Foursquare and that the company was in negotiations with a lot of different “potential partners”. Mashable hints that the social network might strike a deal with Microsoft before any other search engine company due to the fact that Bing has a heavy interest in utilising third party data within its search results and already uses recommendations from Foursquare users on Bing maps.

Nine months ago Twitter struck a deal with Google and Microsoft which allowed these search engines to show the most relevant, trending tweets when users searched for particular words or phrases and now Foursquare want the same for locations.

Before this news broke I was not convinced that Foursquare had much of a future mainly because you needed a smart phone to reap the full benefit of the social network and to date it has made little to no impact on the Irish market. However it is taking off in America and recently helped Dominos Pizza increase its sales by 29% in UK according to Mashable. On top of this the company is valued at $95 million thanks to a cash investment of $20 million by venture capitalist company, Andreessen Horowitz. The venture capitalist is headed by Marc Andreessen who is co-founder of Ning and investor in Twitter and a Facebook board member. Then there is Ben Horowitz who is a former Vice president at Hewlett Packard. So for the moment anyway Foursquare looks pretty safe to me.

The mobile phone has evolved to the point where it has essentially become another root to market for brands and means that there is virtually no time of the day or night that consumers cannot be reached whether they are at home or on the move. This has happened because phones have now reached a stage where they can support a level of internet browsing that is similar to that of a PC. Meaning that social media and search marketing is now applicable to mobile phones which is great.

The invention of the telephone revolutionized the way people communicated when it was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 and it has continued to evolve ever since. In the 1980’s phones became portable and were carried around in suitcases that doubled as battery packs to keep them charged. Then in the 1990’s companies like Nokia and Samsung made the mobile phone mainstream and before long they became a necessity. Particularly in business it allowed people to arrange appointments on the go, reschedule meetings at the press of a button and meant that the term “work hours” had effectively become redundant.

The evolution of the humble telephone did not stop there. In the past five years mobile phones have developed beyond a means of communication in the traditional sense. The invention and accessibility of the internet, and people’s desire to be constantly connected has seen the birth of the “Smart Phone”. The smart phone, essentially, has bridged the gap between a desk top PC and a portable lap top. Below is a chart that maps the growth and release dates of smart phones since 2007.

Graph by Google 2010

Smart phones have effectively brought the convenience and usability of home internet browsing onto a portable device you can hold in the palm of your hand. This in turn has increased the reach of brands and the opportunities for consumers to gain the best value from their online experience. There are countless examples of how brands have used smart phones to increase profits. It has been well documented by Mashable that many brands have used techniques that involve smart phones to boost profits and increase customer loyalty. Starbucks teamed up with the social network Foursquare, to offer free coffees to people who sign in to particular shops a certain number of times every week. Other brands that have launched similar initiatives include Ann Taylor who is now offering a 15% discount to shoppers who check in at any one of it’s New York city shops (mayors get a 25% discount) and Oscar de la Renta is offering a free iPad clutch to the major of it’s flagship shop on the 17^th of July (3 days from now).

Because of this boom in the level of smart phones, both globally and in Ireland Google have taken notice and really improved its offerings within mobile marketing. These improvements are centred largely around bringing search advertising to mobile devises which include sponsored ad listings when viewing Google maps, improved sponsored search ads and click to call (a variation on pay per click). Google released figures on the staggering growth of smart phones and the cultural phenomenon they have evoked. You have already seen the sharp growth of smart phones above and here are some more cool facts that might interest you:

· There have been 3 billion applications downloaded from the iTunes app store in the last 18 months.

· By 2013 smart phones sales will surpass PC sales.

· Over the next three years mobile data will increase by 66 times.

· Half of all internet connections are now mobile connections.

· The world’s favourite device for accessing the internet is now a phone.

I don’t know about you guys but when I heard all of this it made think about whether or not I was being left behind by not having a smart phone? (Especially considering the iPhone 4 is out on the 28^th of July). If only we lived in a world where prices decreased as sales increased. Someday! As always let us know what you think.

Oxegen 2010 harnesses the power of the oh-so-social-web

With Oxegen 2010 fever about to take over the Radical office we decided to take a look at what Europe’s favourite rock and roll weekend is doing to keep in contact with fans online. When is comes to social media and all things digital it appears Oxegen could not get enough. The festival is using Facebook, Twitter, blogs, vlogs, and an iphone app among others to communicate with Irish festival lovers. Businesses or event organisers looking for a way to create hype and buzz around their event should look to Oxegen for direction. With integration across all media types their social media efforts are definitely paying off.

In recent years Oxegen (previously Witness) has sought to make the festival more appealing to mainstream music fans. Along with the more pop based line-up Oxegen has introduced the use of social media to branch out to their fan base. This years’ Facebook campaign is a resounding triumph with the highest number of Facebook ‘likes’ (formerly known as fans) in the entertainment category in Ireland at 91,560 ‘likes’ to date. That’s more fans than there are tickets! Aside from fan growth they have done a great job with providing appealing, fun, conversational content on a regular basis. Fans appear to be answering each others questions regarding line-up, what to bring etc with little input from the managers of the page. However the rumour of cancellation by rap artist Eminem was contained quickly when an unofficial blog claimed that the rapper would be replaced by Paramore.

The festival’s Twitter has fewer than 4,500 followers, pointing to the lower number of ‘twits’ in this younger age demographic. Nonetheless their Twitter list of artists playing at the event is an obvious advantage. Followers of the list can see artist’s tweets and will no doubt be a serious draw during the weekend itself.

This bring us onto the blogs themselves, three of Oxegen’s organisers have posted blogs to the official website. Low frequency of posting and difficulty in adding comments leave the blogs lacking in appeal to the average fan. This is a shame especially as one of the bloggers, Duchess, had some really juicy inside information on shameful dressing room requests from bands.

The real win for Oxegen and their campaign is the development of an iphone application for 2010. Hitting number one in the itunes store in just 24 hours the iphone app offers content to fans that we would not have thought possible a few years ago. From the basics of a checklist of what to bring to the festival to the more useful twitter feed and interactive event schedule, this app really adds value to Oxegen’s offering.

Even more exciting is the site map and the extremely handy GPS feature allowing you to tag your tent etc. Never again will a lost camper wander into the wrong tent. Finally to top things off the app has solved the age old problem of losing friends at gigs. Connected via Facebook users can turn on the ‘share my location’ setting and allow updates on your friend’s location in real time. We not need to tell festival goers how quite brilliant this really is.

Overall Oxegen’s organisers seem to be set to have another cracking festival. The only drawbacks are the lack of the use of other links on their website. Sites such as Vimeo, LastFM and Flickr are listed on the site but have very little activity. Fans appear to only be interested in the conventional social media for now.

So what would the Radical office like to see at the festival next year? Well for all the office foursquare fanatics we would love to see some venues set up within the arena itself. We quite like the idea of being mayor of the main stage! A quick note as well on Glastonbury and Orange on their collaboration on the multiple tagging photo on Orange’s festival website. It would be great to see Oxegen do something similar and get facebook users to share the experience.

Our wellies are ready, are yours?

A social storm may be brewing between the two juggernauts of the digital world. Facebook is trying to make inroads into improving its search offering for users but are nowhere near as effective as Google and Google is trying to become more social by developing various social networks which have so far flopped. Google Wave, Buzz and Orkut are perfect examples of this.

This has supposedly led Google to rethink its social strategy. The Independent in the UK reported on Wednesday (30/06/2010) that the internet giants are planning to launch a social networking site, known for the moment as “Google Me”. This site is said to be a carbon copy of Google’s biggest rival Facebook. The internet erupted with rumours and speculation that this was the case when the founder of Digg, Kevin Rose tweeted ““Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon “Google Me,” very credible source”. See image below.

Kevin Roses Tweet 26/06/2010

Although Kevin Rose has since deleted his tweet the rumours have been confirmed by another credible source. The former Chief Technology Office (CTO) of Facebook Adam D’Angelo. According to The Independent D’Angelo is quoted as saying “This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it.” He goes on to say; “They (Google) realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.” He finishes by saying “They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.”

Although Google has had its social short comings in the past this is set to be a very interesting twelve months as more about the potential offering emerges and what if anything Facebook plan to do to protect its virtual monopoly in the social space is revealed.

So it leaves only one question, do you think Google has the expertise and know how to create a social network with the potential to rival Facebook? Are we going to be telling clients to forget about Facebook because their target market is now using Google Me? As Aoife mentioned in the last post AOL lost $750 million when it sold Bebo because Facebook provided a better offering.

For the moment anyway I think Facebook are safe, Google are too scientific and technical to create a truly effective social network. Facebook have nearly 500 million users and show no sign of slowing down. Google should stick to what it does best which is provide users with a brilliant search experience, so much so that we no longer search for things we “Google” them. Let us know what you think. Would you leave Facebook for Google?

AOL must have breathed a sigh of relief when the news of the sale of the social networking site bebo became official last week. The site which cost AOL $850 million two years ago is said to have been sold for a figure less than $10 million to Criterion Capital Partners, an investment firm. While Criterion’s plans for bebo are unclear as of yet, it has been speculated that the firm has serious interest in reviving the waning company.

Regardless of the investor’s plans for the social network, no doubt there will be countless articles in the next few weeks about AOL’s acquisition blunder. From tax implications to the halt in bebo’s development it appears that neither party benefited from the transaction. However an interesting post on the EMarketer blog reminds us that bebo was not always an outcast in the social media world. Remember the good old days when facebook ‘would never take off here’ and bebo was the place to be? With personalized skins, videos, quizzes, polls, whiteboards, and the ability to ‘share the luv’ we could not get enough of bebo in its hay day. Bebo provided teenagers with a platform to show and share a teenager’s favorite pastime; themselves! From a marketers perspective Bebo created some firsts that despite its current decline in growth cannot be dismissed.

Bebo may not have been as bad a buy as now appears. At the time of purchase bebo was extremely popular in Ireland and the UK, it had an impressive portion of the market compared with Facebook and appeared to be on an upward trend. It had become a concentrated hive of teenagers, bebo knew how to get the kids in and keep them there. All this provided a priceless platform to reach out and communicate to these lucrative consumers, and they were listening.

Bebo was one of the first pioneers in engagement marketing. Remember bebo’s branded pages? They allowed companies to create their own page to reach users to spread messages, games, downloads and more. Much like Facebook does now, albeit lacking Facebook’s precise targeting methods used in their advertising.  However this was back in 2006 all two years before Facebook launched their engagement ads. Bebo had a number of successful campaigns including those with Disney to launch the movie ‘Cars’ and Meteor’s genie.

Bebo was also one of the first social networks to integrate video into their services. Bebo hosted KateModern the online interactive series. KateModern included product integration and was the first truly interactive show online, which utilized the tools available on Bebo to help fans interact. At the time this was revolutionary and provided yet another platform for marketers to communicate with their target audience cost effectively and efficiently. Companies got in on the game quickly and KateModern hosted campaigns for Disney, Toyota and Procter & Gamble. You know all those applications on Facebook that allow you to add content from a third party website, well bebo was first on the scene once again, several months before Facebook. Bebo users were able to integrate their personal widgets into their pages to share with friends, as pointed out in EMarketer’s article this is remarkably similar to Facebook’s ‘like’ button concept. Once again bebo continued to break new ground in the reach of social networks and their ability to aid a firm’s marketing plan. Indeed it appears that current successful social networks owe a debt of gratitude to bebo for contributing to growth in the social media revolution.

So what are bebo’s chances of turning away from its heavily muddied name, and starting to lead in the social media world again? While a large number of its users may have graduated on to Facebook or other social networks, there continues to be growth in the industry. As social networks continue to develop it seems certain that networks will become less ambiguous and more user specific. Demographics will play a key part in the development and growth of communities online. In the future this will give marketers more concentrated groups of their key consumers to communicate with. Social Media and its uses are becoming better understood and well recognized, to prevent the concept becoming jaded developers of sites will need to look towards improving not what is being said but how it is being said. Bebo has always been a youthful brand; there is hope that it could be reincarnated again. The real question is who will restore it to its earlier glory. Perhaps the only person with the know-how is the man who created the former giant himself……Michael Birch.

Its official, we’ve all gone YouTube crazy. This Monday Mashable reported that YouTube now exceeds two billion video views everyday and is still growing. This means that almost one third of the world’s population are uploading and viewing content everyday. YouTube users also upload nearly 24 hours worth of content every minute so the two billion viewers will have plenty to keep themselves entertained. This news comes less than a month after YouTube celebrated its 5th birthday and really solidifies its place as a powerhouse in social media and an essential marketing tool for any brand serious about reaching its target demographic. YouTube has also announced that it will expand its reach to include Africa, meaning that it now has a home on six separate continents.

These facts were released as part of a bigger announcement that the Google owned company are to launch an initiative to document the history of YouTube and its growth to date. The social media site was launched in 2005 thanks to Sequoia Capita who injected $11.5 million into the company before it was bought by Google in November 2006 for $1.65 billion. Since then it has gone from strength to strength and this has culminated in the launch of the YouTube Five Year Channel which includes the “My YouTube Story” project. This project encourages users to upload videos to the channel telling stories of the impact YouTube has had on their lives.

This is happening just over a month after Twitter announced that it will work with The U.S Library of Congress to catalogue every tweet since its launch in 2006. Social media is making strides to become recognised as a legitimate medium in league with television, radio and printed press. YouTube in particular has emerged as the first port of call for cultures all around the world to document everything from civic unrest and political debates to a platform that may launch aspiring musicians. In fact, just last week a 12 year old boy from Oklahoma in America posted a video of himself covering the Lady Ga Ga hit Paparazzi. It has now received over 17 million views and caught the attention of chat show host Ellen DeGeneres who invited the boy onto her show.

Despite all these impressive statistics and everything YouTube has achieved in its five years of operation they insist this is just the beginning. The platform began using Adobe Flash Video technology and has evolved to support HD and 3D videos. And although Silicon Republic reports that YouTube receives almost double the prime time audience of all the U.S television networks combined viewers still only spend roughly 15 minutes a day browsing YouTube but a staggering 5 hours watching TV. Going forward YouTube intend to make the website easier to navigate so users can more easily find the videos that matter to them. This is great news for us here at Radical as we’ve been keeping a close a close eye on the websites steady progression. We also recommend it as an essential part of the social media strategy for many of our clients!

Watch the video that YouTube created to mark its fifth anniversary and below you can see an information graph tracking the websites most important landmarks. Check them out they’re really cool.