There may be one or two people out there who have not yet read Chris Brogan’s Social Media 101 and it is for them that I write this blog post (and really just for my own satisfaction, knowing that I have paid homage to this great collection of writings).

Before I go into the details, it is necessary to tell you a few background facts that support my love of this perfectly proportioned tome:
1. It is beautiful
2. It feels smooth to the touch
3. It fits easily into my handbag
4. It is the ONLY business book that I have read cover to cover in one sitting

That said, it is also a book that you can easily dip in and out of and grab a useful little nugget of knowledge every time. There is a growing library of social media books out there. Some focus more on the tools, some give first hand experience from social media “gurus” and some claim that you can make a million dollars a month through social media without leaving your armchair. This one is different. It’s relevant. It’s readable. It gives you practical advice.

There are 87 bite size chapters (most material is taken from chrisbrogan.com but there’s loads of extras in there) and it is broken up in such a way as to allow you to use it for reference. Chapters such as Making Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You and Writing E-mail That Gets Answered are interesting for most business users, not just those of us working in communications.

Lastly, there’s a bonus chapter for those of us who do work in PR and communications, What I Want PR and Marketing Professionals to Know – it’s a good checklist for those new to social media or those who want to brush up their skills.

If anyone can suggest a better or equally good book I’d really like to hear about it, do send in any suggestions to jdavis@thebluedoor.com.

Oh dear, another brand trips over the step on the way into Facebook. The latest edition of PR Week reprises the tale of Dr Pepper’s attempt at being down with the kids, except that CocaCola had to pull the page when it sailed to close to the wind in its bid for online PR kudos.  Here at thebluedoor PR agency we’re often asked to advise upon social media strategy, and frequently deliver as PR consultants on social media summits and training, as well as of course including this whole arena in our PR campaigns.  Never has it seemed so crucial that social media should be handled with care.

Nevertheless, in many ways, it’s all just too tempting for some to dive in quickly and without forethought. Twitter and the like are a dream PR medium in many respects – used appropriately and with knowledge of how they work, social networking sites become another bullet with which to hit your target. But it’s no revelation that with the rise and rise of social networking sites, the pitfalls get ever deeper, and the trip wires omnipresent in the world of brand building online.

It is a naïve brand that underestimates social media tools and their inhabitants, and worse, that enters the world of Twitter et al without understanding how they work.  It’s a dangerous place for the uninitiated who have a brand to promote and protect – take note, Dr Pepper, and Gillian McKeith, KitKat, Rentokil, the list goes on. There are numerous examples of brands who fail to understand that storms can be made on Twitter or Facebook, and indeed that it is the remit of many inhabitants of social networks to whip up such frenzies and ‘out’ the disingenuous, failing or unethical. It is the ultimate free press.

So, social media has to be taken more seriously as a PR medium, most importantly by those doing, unwittingly or otherwise, their own PR.  A good PR pro would never openly comment on Twitter without absolute confidence, knowledge, client say-so or any of the usual background preparation any more than they would to a print journalist, but so many people do exactly that because of the accessibility of Twitter.  You wouldn’t navigate the Grand Canyon without a guide – get someone on board who knows the terrain, and if you can’t do that, as with other PR-gone-bad scenarios, the best advice is to face your critics with honesty and openness, followed by a holiday.

thebluedoor managing director Abigail Harrison talked to Nick Wallis about Twestival Farnham on Surrey Breakfast this morning.  If you would like to listen to the broadcast, you can hear it online at  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p006yt1l – just drag the timer to 0.23.40

For anyone who has not yet bought a ticket yet, they are still on sale at http://www.farnham.twestival.com

Digital PR is increasingly being talked about in the PR and Marketing media. PR agencies are starting up divisions or spin off companies to focus on digital communications services for potential and existing customers.

There’s no doubt that online communication tools such as Twitter, social networking and blogs are all part of society today, but so are conversations at bus stops, in coffee shops and in people’s homes. These face-to-face conversations are driven by information from print newspapers, TV and word of mouth news and views. We’ve got to remember that not everyone spends their day connected to the Internet.

However, with ongoing technology developments, these online and offline worlds may be merging even further. At the recent CES event in Las Vegas, new innovations were displayed including the latest in combining TV and Internet. With products like the Samsung Widget TV, the traditional living room that is dominated by the family TV, may now give that same family easy access to the Internet via their TV screen. The need to boot up a laptop or computer in order to access the web will be a thing of the past.

The distinction between web-based and more traditional information sharing sources is definitely blurring. PROs and Marketers must remember that it’s essential to understand the target audience you are trying to reach and ensure you include the correct media channels in order to reach them. That means being aware of all online and offline channels, and with increasingly rapid technology advances there’s plenty to keep up to date with!

It’s an exciting time and one that PROs should embrace in its entirety rather than focusing on one area alone.

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Last night, thebluedoor – Surrey based digital PR agency – hosted the second Surrey Tweetup in Farnham with very generous support from iBundle.

Organised through the power of Twitter – specifically using the recently rolled out lists and geolocation functions – 45 people came along to a very successful Surrey Tweetup. Kindly sponsored by innovation hub, iBundle, those attending were not only treated to drinks but also to an insight into the complex issues surrounding digital data interoperability by iBundle’s founder Julian Ranger.

thebluedoor is committing to organising this free digital networking event on a monthly basis (we hope!). We are aiming to ensure that those attending will have plenty of networking (and drinking / social) time. In addition, we hope to source an interesting speaker to start the digital conversations flowing. A significant challenge in the digital world is its massively fast changing nature – cloud computing, real-time web, hyper-local, privacy – therefore each month’s expert speaker will provide those attending with a relevant and meaningful update on a specific topic (rather than a business pitch).

The next #SurreyTweetup will be held on 25th March 2010 (venue to be confirmed – although it will be in Farnham). This event will take a slightly different format as it falls on the global Twestival event. Harnessing the power of Twitter, people will be meeting up around the world on the 25th March to raise much needed funds for Concern Worldwide.

So we are bringing Twestival to Surrey in the form of Twestival Farnham, which we’re very excited about. As soon as the url and organisation information is released by the Twestival global organising committee, thebluedoor will be launching a dedicated Twestival Farnham blog where everyone will be able to get all the details. In addition, we will keep this blog up to date with Twestival Farnham information, plus there is already a specific Twitter Twestival Farnham feed: @twestivalfarnhm (missing the a because Twitter won’t allow a longer Twitter handle). And in April, we will be running a ‘regular’ Surrey Tweetup gathering.

In the meantime, thank you all for attending last night. As promised, below is a list of everyone on Twitter who came along. Don’t hesitate to put those I’ve missed out in the comments section below. And see you again!! (And next time I will be bringing labels so we can write our Twitter handles on – good suggestion from @k4thybrown.)

@jhhypnotherapy, @mewcenary, @neil_p, @emmafirth, @jamesfirth, @SEOtipsntricks, @rangerj, @benjaminellis, @thelastromantic, @mrmatthamm, @velohub, @emmabandey, @opensourcerer, @k4thybrown, @twentynine12, @suesearle, @4legs, @poldings, @andypike, @1minus1, @georgeLMoore, @projectfive, @pascalw, @asaltbde, @nickykriel, @wiggo, @rachela8, @knockbuckle, @mintytorus, @bhardcastle, @the_jchristie, @jeniferdav, @toni_jane, @guy1067, @rgosc, @abigailh, @sheila_parry

In order to truly understand a business sector and develop an expertise, an avid reading habit is required. thebluedoor is a digital PR agency so consequently our reading material is quite varied to cover both the PR sector and those of our clients. Our PR focused reading list is quite broad (both online and in dead-tree format), and includes Wired, New Media Age, .Net, PR Week, Marketing Week, B2B Marketing and The Economist.

I thought it might be useful to post some of the recent digital media and online PR statistics that we have read about.

Facebook:

• 300 million global active users
• 22 million UK active users
• 50% log in and spend 25 minutes daily
• Average ‘heavy’ users spent 125 hours over the last 12 months
• 59% year on year growth
• 75% of all time spent on social networks
• 8,325 billion minutes spent in the UK in September 2009

(Sources – B2B Marketing; NMA/Nielsen)

LinkedIn:

• 52 million users globally
• 3 million in the UK
• Growing at 1 million every 12 days

(Source – B2B Marketing)

Twitter:

• 1,959% year on year growth
• US leads by Twitter countries, followed by UK
• 6th largest social media site
• There have been over 8,000,000,000 Tweets to date, and counting

(Source – NMA: Nielsen; GigaTweet)

Wikipedia:

• 3,1720,120 articles in English
• 19,245,419 pages in English
• 684,000,000 visitors in 2008

(Source – Wikipedia)

iPhone App Store:

• 30 million iPhone users
• 20 million iPhone Touch owners
• Over 2 billion apps have been downloaded from 100,000 apps
• AdMob estimates that $200 million worth of apps are downloaded per month ($2.4 billion per year)
• By June 2009, the app software-development kit had been downloaded 1,000,000 times

(Source – Wired: AdMob)

3G Phones:

• 3G mobile penetration in western Europe has risen from 17% in 2007, to 29% in 2009
• It is forecast to reach to 67% in western Europe by 2011
• In Japan penetration rate is 67%
• $43 billion was made from mobile Internet in Japan in 2008
• 610 million of the first two billion App Store downloads were for paid applications

(Sources – Wired: Morgan Stanley, Pinch Media)

Blogs:

• 133,000,000 blogs indexed by Technorati
• 3,561,000 RSS subscribers to TechCrunch
• 346,000,000 people read blogs
• 900,000 new blog posts every 24 hours

(Source – Technorati)

I tend to bookmark interesting articles on Delicious. Do have a look at what I’ve been reading recently, and I would be grateful of any recommendations. Thanks!

Twitter has become an established part of the digital PR communications tool-box for companies around the world. Twitter has increased the opportunity help businesses engage effectively and transparently with target online audiences, whilst evolving established communication processes in the public relations and journalism sectors.

As a PR agency based in Surrey, and following the success of thebluedoor’s last Tweet-up in December, we have decided to organise a second Surrey networking event on 3rd February 2010. And we’re very pleased to thank locally based iBundle for kindly agreeing to sponsor the evening’s drinks. iBundle is an innovation hub for software and web companies, providing innovative new tools and services for their target markets.

As before, proceedings start at 7pm at the Slug and Lettuce on East Street, Farnham. For those that are driving, there is a convenient car park at Sainsbury’s on South Street, and the nearest train station is only a ten minute walk away from the venue.

The Tweet-up offers an opportunity to meet up IRL (in real life), network with the local digital community and enjoy discussing some of the key developments in the digital space.

I hope that this is the start a regular Surrey-based free networking event. All are welcome: PRs, journalists, developers, programmers, freelancers – in fact anyone on Twitter or in the digital space who is interested in meeting up for a drink and a chat.

If you’re planning to attend, please let us know via email (info at thebluedoor dot com) or leave a comment below. We wish all the local tweeting community a happy new year and we look forward to seeing you all again in person.

P.S.: Date for your diaries – thebluedoor is already looking forward to supporting the global charitable event Twestival 2010. We will therefore be organising a Tweet-up in Farnham, Surrey on 25th March to raise funds for Concern Worldwide. Further details will appear on our blog shortly.

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I am thrilled to be starting 2010 with an eight week internship at the Surrey PR agency, thebluedoor. After completing PR placements in London in the travel and tourism sector last year, I am eager to continue my education and learn from a PR agency that is growing rapidly with exciting prospects for the year ahead.

thebluedoor – its clients and its digital PR expertise – offered me an internship which I was delighted to accept. As a relatively new PR agency I felt that I would be able to both learn from their experience as well as significantly aid the team in implementing PR strategies and campaigns for their wide portfolio of impressive consumer, B2B and digital brands. And from speaking to the team, I know that the coming two months will greatly improve my knowledge of PR and the importance of digitised communication for businesses.

And I’ve not been disappointed: on my first day I was I was asked to help organise a Tweet-up, inviting interested Tweeps in the Farnham, Surrey and Hampshire areas to meet and celebrate Twitter and its effects upon the world of PR, communications and business. I’m really excited about this project as it will provide me with first-hand knowledge of digital and social networking tools such as blogs and Twitter, and getting to grips with their power beyond sharing what I’ve eaten for breakfast.I know I’m going to be challenged and supported whilst at thebluedoor, they have committed to ensuring that I learn rather than just being thrown in at the deep end. And having met the team, I know that as well as some hard work, there should also be plenty of fun to be had along the way.

Written by Liam Sherry, Intern at thebluedoor

Twitter has taken the world of journalism and PR by storm. With its 1,959% year on year growth, its use in the world of communications is firmly established. Although the world of Twitter is online, I have met some interesting, inspirational and awesome Tweeters in real life.

So to celebrate all things Twitter and Christmas, and with encouragement from fellow Farnham Tweeters @jamesfirth, @emmafirth and @guy1067, we have decided to organise a festive gathering in Farnham, Surrey on 10th December 2009. Kick-off is at 7.30pm, so come along and meet up in person at the Slug & Lettuce on East Street. For those of you driving, there is a handy Sainsbury’s car-park on South Street, and for those of you coming by train it is just ten minutes walk from the station.

Let us know whether you are coming by either sending us an email or leaving a comment below. It would be great to meet up with the Surrey Twitter community in person, and of course raise a glass to the festive season.

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Google is the daddy – that was the message from the seminar I recently attended. Not that I had any doubts on that subject, with Google funneling the majority of search queries as well as developing extended services like Google Wave and Google Docs, no-one is currently in a position to challenge their status.

Being interested in web optimisation and ever keen to keep up on the latest methods that Google is using to crawl, index and serve up search results, I was looking forward to the seminar hosted by Thoughtbubble and delivered by Tim Ireland. And I wasn’t disappointed. Tim is an excellent speaker – his experience and knowledge is vast.

If you have been following our recent debates: PR vs SEO, you will know that we, at thebluedoor, believe PR and online PR, and SEO are complimentary but very different skills that share one common goal: raising and maintaining “brand” reputation.

Hearing Tim talk about his experiences and showing live examples of his work underscored what we have heard from Matt Cutts and other Google gurus: reputation is key. There are no shortcuts and no substitute for longevity: well written keyword rich text and strong inbound links gained through sucessful partnerships are what really count.

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