Surrey Tweetup: digital networking in real life

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

Social media and Web 2.0 statistics: a round-up

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!

Twestival Farnham: 25 March 2010

On 25th March 2010, cities and towns across the world will be harnessing the power of Twitter and digital media to raise much needed funds for Concern Worldwide. Twestival is a global event organised by a fantastic team of volunteers, and for those interested in hosting a similar event, the UK Twestival office is run by the very helpful @claireatwaves and @arengrimshaw.

In the charity's own words: "Concern’s work is informed by a vision for change and their education programs target the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world, with particular emphasis on reaching out-of-school children such as girls, orphans, street children, working children, children affected by conflict, children affected by HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities."

Twestival can truly make a difference. The first Twestival event, held just under a year ago, involved 220 international cities and raised over $250,000.00. The money donated funded the building of over 55 water wells in Uganda, India and Ethiopia, positively impacting over 17,000 people.

thebluedoor has decided to organise a Twestival in Farnham, with the generous support and sponsorship of iBundle, the Surrey based innovation hub. We know that there are a fantastic number of people and businesses in Surrey who actively use Twitter to network, do business and have fun. We hope that people will be inspired to support this event by coming along, lending a hand (in kind or in sponsorship), and helping us to raise some funds for a truly wonderful charity.

We have set up a Twitter account - @twestivalfarnhm (yes we know, it's missing an 'a' - Twitter won't let through longer account names LOL) and hashtag #twestivalfarnhm so interested peeps can keep up to date with our progress. Very soon we will be launching a farnham.twestival.com blog as an official source of event information and the global organisers are planning to ensure that tickets will be on sale some time in February. One way or another, thebluedoor will aim to keep everyone up-to-date with our progress.

If you are interested in finding out more, helping or even sponsoring an aspect of the evening's events (give-aways, prizes, music etc), please don't hesitate to let us know - info at thebluedoor dot com. We'd love to have you on board and are committed to creating an interesting, fun and productive event worthy of the main Twestival event.

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Surrey networking: Tweet-up in Farnham, February 2010

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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Twitter: Surrey networking - a review

Last week, we organised the first Twitter networking event in Farnham, Surrey (aka a Tweet-up). On a busy week full of festive gatherings we were delighted with the interest and attendance.

We organised this gathering following encouragement from all sides, led by @emmafirth of the Daily Telegraph. It was great to see quorum of Twitter enthusiasts rocking-up, including: @jamesfirth, @andypiper, @guy1067, @toni_jane, @jeniferdav, @kwright5, @pascalw and rachel_adams88.

There were a good number of conversations including:

• Telegraph expenses story
• Paywalls / free content
• The rise and rise of Google
• The digital goldfish bowl
• Programming: Ruby, Adobe AIR, .NET
• The perils of marathon running (!? - @guy1067 is gearing up to his second Marathon and is tackling London in April 2010)

We will definitely have another evening Tweet-up in the New Year, so the conversations can continue.... currently thinking end of January, beginning of February. Do let us know if you would like to come: info at thebluedoor dot com, and when.

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Festive tweet-up in Farnham

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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Social media, journalism and politics: a fatal embrace?

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and now SlashKey are all continuing to grow with stunning speed according to exclusive research by Nielsen Online published in new media age (05/11/09). Key to their growth is the fight for their online audience's time. UK online population spent 11.1 billion minutes using social media sites during September 2009, an increase of 83% on the previous year.

Twitter - public enemy number one or popular darling, depending on whether you are a 'typical' BBC Moral Maze listener or enthusiastic Reuters news pundit - continues to grow. Currently standing at sixth most popular social media sites by unique users (4.43 million to be exactly), it is the fastest growing online real estate (1,959%), with 5,734,350,000 Tweets to date and counting.

Earlier this week, I attended a debate at Reuters to discuss with other Twitter users from the worlds of journalism, politics and PR, to discuss Twitter and social media's role in shaping the world. Top of mind were recent debates including BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze programme where people on Twitter were described as a "baying mob", as well as the recent Jan Moir/PCC event, plus Trafigura.

Of course at a self-selecting event such as this, there will always be an element of the digital gold-fish bowl preaching to its-self. However, I came away feeling that the reason why these tools are important are for the same reason that a complaints line, or marching against the poll-tax have always been important. Whilst I doubt that Government ever will take such tools to the heart of their communications strategies, social media certainly has a place, a powerful one too, at the table for those with ambition, aspiration, ideas and desire to make a difference. However, these same tools become less permissible as people progress up the food chain - the voice of the one has to bend to the voice of the party (a touch of the Stalins creeping in here), particularly in our current 'democratic' process of party line and party whip.

In today's anguished world of publishing where the debate on free vs. paid seems to rumble on towards its doomed end, social media has added a layer of complexity to the mix. Does a publication compromise the truth for the need to be the first to break a story? Speed puts the industry under immense pressure, however many of the journalists attending, particularly the younger ones, kept on reminding the audience - nothing has changed. The tools have evolved but the reasons haven't.

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The science of search: has the Bing revolution begun?

It appears that Microsoft’s newly launched ‘decision engine’ Bing has generated some great interest with an ever increasing number of web users trying it out. Yesterday Microsoft released its own data on the state of Bing just one month after its official launch. It makes for interesting reading…

According to Microsoft’s own data, Bing has seen an 8% growth in unique users to bing.com in its debut month and based on their own polling Microsoft has also seen an increase in the number of people ‘likely to recommend’ Bing to their friends or colleagues.

With its appealing design, easy navigation and claims to be able to deliver more relevant results than its competitors, Bing is certainly creating waves. However, while Bing appears to be making strong in-roads into enhancing the search experience in the US, here in the UK the current Beta version doesn’t enjoy many of the tools that enhance the US search results.

While it is strong on image results – I personally love how you can search by image type – it needs more work to be a real competitor to Google right now. Although this looks set to change, in a recent article featured in MediaWeek Microsoft UK's head of search, Paul Stoddart commented: "We want to make sure Bing in Britain is the best Bing in Britain we could possibly have." One to watch it seems…

While Bing in the UK continues to develop its search capabilities, real time search is evolving rapidly. The uniqueness is its immediacy. Micro blogging sites such as Twitter are fast becoming the buzz in the world of search. Even Bing has begun to include certain key Twitter feeds into its search results. Like wise, following its recent re-design and the introduction of real-time search, FriendFeed now updates continuously as data comes in. You can search for anything on the site and see it instantly. Real-time search is also possible for advanced search options, including search terms that you can save and track through FriendFeed, and on its blog widget.

The significance of real time search is the possibilities it presents. The lack of delay between composition and publication of information means information hungry audiences are provided with up to the minute results which are more relevant than those provided by more traditional search engines such as Google.

In my opinion these are exciting times for the world of search. Competition is healthy, new entrants to the search market will result in new innovations and help regulate the bigger players.

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TechCrunch: ' The Europas' - and the winners are.....

Last night TechCrunch (the blog bible for all things Web 2.0 and mobile), held The Europas - the publication's first-ever awards to recognise the brightest and the best in the industry. Over 250 people attended, with a stella cast directed by the editor Mike Butcher, including Robert Scoble and the Traveling Geeks, Brent Hoberman of MyDeco and Lastminute fame and Michael Birch of Bebo and BirthdayAlarm.

News of the night was that Hoberman and Birch have indeed partnered (the rumour broke earlier this year) to form a fund - PROfounders Capital and panel debate focused on why expansion of start-ups into Europe was so tough. (Although our cross-border eCommerce white paper - Borderless - was published way-back in October 2008, language was deemed to be a key factor, as Sarah Lacy on the panel pointed-out.)

So the winners were:
Grand Prix - Spotify
Best New Startup Summer 2008-2009 - Spotify (TweetDeck, my personal Twitter application favourite, was Highly Commended)
Best Investor - TAG The Accelerator Group
Best Startup Founders - Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon of Spotify
Best Mobile Application (EMEA) - Spinvox
Best Mobile Startup (EMEA) - Nimbuzz
Best Entertainment Application or Service - SoundCloud
Best European / Real World Gadget - Poken
Best Cleantech / Environmental Startup - AlertMe
Best Enterprise / B2B Startup - Huddle
Best Social Innovation (which benefits society EMEA) - Mendeley
Best Bootstrapped Startup (less than 3 years old) - Soup.io
Best Design - Songkick
Best Web Application or Service (EMEA) - Spotify

It was truly a fantastic evening. Spotify certainly swept the board, however there were some extremely deserving businesses in the Highly Commended categories. I'm personally hoping that the awards will be repeated next year to give well-deserved credit to the stars and future stars of this innovative and extremely exciting industry.

Tweetcamp London: a review

Last weekend over 100 people met up for the London TweetCamp, generously hosted by GumTree and sponsored by mymuseli, Sun Startup Essentials, Addlestones, PayPal and Yelp. Some were colleagues and friends in real life, but many were 'friends' and / or 'followers' who communicate online through Twitter.

TweetCamp provided an inclusive and welcoming place for people active and interested in Twitter to meet up, network and put faces to Twitter names. In true Bar Camp style, discussions were loosely guided and encompassed a range of subjects including: What people use Twitter for; The do's and don'ts of Twitter; Trends; and Business benefits.

For those reading this who don't know, Twitter prompts users to fill out a micro-blog posting using only 140 characters (this includes spaces and punctuation). Postings can be extended by the use of hyper-links to blogs. Conversations take place on Twitter either through private Direct Messages or in public. In order to talk to someone or get their attention, it is vital to the person's account name (Twitter handle) in the posting e.g.: '@toni_jane have you seen the Radian6 YouTube video?' By including Toni's handle in the Tweet, it enables the message to be searched more effectively and therefore discovered by Toni.

TweetCamp enabled free, unrestricted conversations to happen, online relationships could be explored face-to-face, and valuable insights shared. Interestingly though, at the end of the day when each participant was invited to contribute a summing-up comment, Tweet-speak prevailed.

One of the key aspects of the Twitter online community is that (in the main) people genuinely want to collaborate and be useful. And that was certainly true of the spirit of the day which would not have happened without the amazing and generous organisation by @farnhan, @cyberdees and @jonin60seconds, and brilliant facilitation by @benjaminellis.

So thank you all - and for me, Twitter has already become a more meaningful landscape having met some more of its inhabitants.

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Twitter: how can a business use it?

"Twitter - so what is the point?" Being involved in digital PR, this is a challenge I hear all the time, partly driven by articles appearing in newspapers written by armchair pundits who don't use it but certainly have a negative opinion.

At thebluedoor we use Twitter alot. Each of us have our own Twitter account and we also have a rather underused company account too. My Twitter name is @AbigailH - please do follow me and let me know if I can help with any Twitter questions that you have.

In order to understand Twitter and its benefits I would advise that you stop reading articles in papers and start using it. Here is some tips that might help you get started:

• Go to Twitter - it's free - and register your own name (or as close as possible) and your business and its brands. Even if you don't intend to use the latter, owning them means that you are protecting them from someone else who might have malicious intentions to spam your brand
• Watch the demonstration video, it is a great starting point
• Fill in your profile and don't forget to put a link to your website or blog
• Use a free application e.g.: TweetDeck / Twirl in order to see conversation
• Follow @hashtags and create business relevant hashtag e.g.: #Habitat (* see below). Hashtags help conversations to be visible
• Follow @MrTweet in order to ‘find’ followers / friends
• Live-Tweet events / news / general industry information, as well as key business information to gather more attention
• Perhaps add links into your Tweets that point into your business’s key online areas. Remember to use key words – there are SEO benefits in Twitter
• Track the ROI by looking at your website's analytics
• Refer to key opinion formers and include their Twitter handle e.g.: @stephenfry. If they are using TweetDeck they might see them and sometimes (if you are lucky!) respond / engage accordingly
• Twitter is great for testing ideas, gathering feedback, and asking questions
• Remember that this is Web 2.0 i.e.: it is talking and listening, not just pushing out company news! – otherwise people will not be interested

* = Habitat got into hot water earlier this week by using inappropriate hashtags such as #iranelection in order to piggy-back a topic that was being discussed (trending).

Twitter does not replace face-to-face communication, but is a very powerful digital networking and collaboration tool for businesses. And in the spirit of that final point, I'm attending tomorrow's TweetCamp in London and am very much looking forward to meeting up with people (many for the first time) who are active on Twitter. If you are going, I can't wait to meet you. And if you're not, there is sure to be lots of live Tweeting going on, so watch out for the #tweetcamp tagged Tweets.

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Social networking, Surrey style!

Last night thebluedoor was networking both on and off-line at a fantastic event at Surrey University. Co-presented by Surrey Chambers of Commerce and SCEPTrE, the evening kicked off with short talks on networking by Avalon Solutions and an introduction to Web 2.0 by Casey Cohen from meterorite. After this excellent informative introduction, we were able to join other local businesses and put the networking tips into action, as well as watch demonstrations of social networking technology by local students.

From podcasting to interactive video, through Flickr, YouTube and Twitter, the many tools available were brilliantly presented by students. Talking from their perspective about how they interact with these technologies, they also outlined the potential these tools present companies to develop their business.

In a spooky coincidence, the reality of the use of social networking in business was the discussion topic on Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme today. Heather from Wiggly Wigglers, a small farm in Herefordshire, explained how her farming business won the Dell Small Business Excellence Award for its use of podcasts, Twitter and blogs.

Her comment that, "markets are conversations, and conversations are markets" really struck home to me and echoed the talks from last night's event.

Social media can be a huge influence on a business - to build a brand and gain access to the thoughts and desires of your target market. The overriding advice - take a bit of time to do some research, listen to the conversations taking place, then engage. The key being to share information in the same way you would in face-to-face networking. The results can be astounding.

We wish the students at the University of Surrey well with their studies and future careers. I'm sure everyone who attended came away with something valuable - and I'm sure are spending a bit more time online today than usual!

The curious story of Twitter, Eurovision and me

I thought I hated Eurovision. However on Saturday night I watched it and loved it. Actually, I didn't really watch it - it was on in the background - however what I really watched was the brilliant and highly entertaining feed of #eurovision tagged tweets coming through my BlackBerry's TwitterBerry app.

Tweople who I know and those who I haven't yet met (maybe never will) but are in my Twitter network, were on fantastic form. Even the BBC host of the evening, Graham Norton, was outdone by an amazing stream of hilarious and risqué witticisms from @Wossy (aka. Jonathan Ross) including:

#eurovision Please God let Andrew LW be dressed as a phantom or a cat.
and
#eurovision He is an even worse dancer then I am. And I am bad.

Interestingly, some of the most enthusiastic Tweeters were not even watching the show - but just following the hilarity through their iPhones during an evening out. As the ever-spot-on blogger Alan Patrick wrote, this mix of Twitter into the evening's entertainment made a significant difference to the Twitter-sphere's viewing experience of Euro-pop.

So, I'll be definitely joining in with the Eurovision-fun next year - even remotely via phone. It was great, it enabled me to get to know my Twitter 'social network' of 'friends' and 'followers' better (well those who were online on a Saturday night anyway - I'm sure there is a Daily Mail headline there!?) and I woke up on Sunday morning still chuckling over some of the more unique entries......

Second Life in need of fresh blood

The circle of life seems to be spinning more slowly now for the virtual world of Second Life. A transfusion of fresh blood might be the answer, but I fear the diagnosis comes too late for its initial followers.

As a fan of Geoffrey Moore’s book, Crossing the Chasm, I’m no stranger to the concept of Innovators, Early Adopters, Early then Late Majority, and finally Laggards. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to me then that the virtual world of Second Life is now entering the later phases of its life. What is interesting though is why now.

Large corporations jumped into the highly popular Second Life, seeing it as a way to market to a vast audience of potential customers - from car manufacturers through to the Government, even the Department of Work!

And following Mr Moore’s teachings, once the mainstay corporations move in, the influential and trendy types move on to find the next big thing – before it gets big!

David Rowan, editor of Wired magazine, summed it up beautifully in his article in The Times last week as “Second Life will be so mainstream as to be terminally uncool”. He predicts the same for the relatively new technology application, Twitter and probably whatever comes after that.

Early adopters will continue to identify the next big thing and support innovative thinking. Surely that can’t be bad?

With talks apparently underway between Twitter and Google however, it will be interesting to see what the lifespan will be for what had the potential to be an amazing tool for global minds to share ideas and knowledge for a long time to come.

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Google Street View – another tool for digital pr?

The Twitter conversation around Google Street View seems to fall into two groups. Divisions occur between the “how dare they do this to me, it’s just another nail in the coffin for personal freedom” and the “I love it and can’t stop using it” crowd.

Now, we work in the digital pr industry, so it could be said that we’re not representative of everyday web users, but we LOVE Google Street View and think everyone else should too. What is surprising is that conversation on Twitter is so divided, surely Twitter users are early adopters of new technology and happy to share information, disseminating it to a large audience? Well, seemingly not all of them. Happy to share what they are wearing, where they are going and what car they will be driving, some Twitter users don’t want us to see what their final destination might have been!

That rant out of the way, I have been thinking about the potential uses of Google Street View for digital pr and have come to the conclusion that there probably aren’t too many. Perhaps the tourism/leisure industry might be able to use images of cities to tempt holidaymakers? Or the property market to enable customers to explore potential areas? But, in digital pr, we’ll probably just use it to explore and have some fun. What do you think?

With all the other Google products out there that help us do our day job, we’ll stick to the analytics, keyword and search sites and just say thank you Google for yet another toy to play with.

The nature of the cyberbeast

This weekend the British national newspapers were full of reviews of Barack Obama’s first 100 hours in office. Debate over his ability to continue his use of the web as proactively as he did during his campaign formed a large part. The Guardian on Saturday, reminded us how Obama, “used the web to inform, beg, organise and, crucially, create a sense of community among supporters”.

His campaign moved from intensive email communication to potential supporters and the media through to a dedicated website (Change.gov) within days of his election, eventually transitioning into Whitehouse.gov. The site is a mix of information, YouTube videos, as well as comments and questions from those involved or wanting to participate in the new administration. The new President understands the power of the Internet to communicate and engage with billions of people and used this powerful resource to his advantage.

Understanding the tools available – email, websites, social networking and Twitter to name but a few – is just one step towards understanding the true nature of the online beast. Making the web work effectively for you requires more attention. The power of the web is immense - this “cyberbeast” has to be given constant attention and respect just like any animal with human contact.

Once engaged online, it is important not to slow down the communication with what can be an ever-growing audience. It is vital to maintain the dialogue and ensure responses are given to questions and requests. Otherwise momentum, trust and reputation can be lost and a once supportive audience can turn very quickly into a negative force.

News of the BarackBerry – a highly secure Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) specially designed for President Obama – enabling the dubbed “e-mailer-in-chief” to keep digitally in-touch 24 x 7 is an indication that he is set to continue his online strategy.

Although we can’t all have industry leaders develop our own personal technology, we can learn from Mr Obama and his team in terms of taming the cyberbeast. Listen to your audience, engage using the tools available and continue to communicate.

Twitter – to tweet or not to tweet that is the question

If India Knight’s article in The Sunday Times last weekend is anything to go by, the reason people tweet is due to being psychologically needy and having a deep rooted desire to stalk celebrities.

I have recently got more involved with Twitter and I think I can safely say that I am neither of the above. I do follow a ‘celebrity’ – Stephen Fry who seems to have Twitter running through his veins and is an active, informative member of the Twitter-verse. However, the majority of the people I follow are industry colleagues, including clients, competitors and innovative thinkers. It’s a great way to share ideas, best practice and keep up to date on industry news.

Twitter does take a while to get used to and certainly needs time to appreciate any value it has in your world. But you have to use it in order to understand it. Making use of key tools such as TweetDeck and Twhirl, being selective about who you follow and why, as well as ensuring you contribute to the dialogue, you’ll soon see the benefits. And when I say contribute, those that use it to blatantly self-promote are soon gently - or not so gently - publically outed.

I use Twitter because as MD to thebluedoor (a PR agency) having an immediate grasp of today’s and tomorrow’s news agendas is vital for our work. In previous agencies I was always stunned at how lazy some of our industry can be at staying up to date. Being on top of current events is the foundation of what we do. Twitter enables me to immediately be aware of what conversations are happening and where. One of the most helpful features of TweetDeck is TweetScoop – using a scaled tag cloud of words it very clearly shows the user in real time what the hot topics currently are on Twitter.

If only the brand managers at Motrin had been active on Twitter. They would have been monitoring and then engaging in the discussion with what was effectively a large online focus group. Taking part in a dialogue can only help to understand what your target audience needs and gives you the chance to respond proactively and effectively.

News sources are also changing. Citizen journalists are a reality – a great example being this week’s incident at Denver international airport when a flight came off the runway. Thanks to the tweets made by a passenger on his iPhone, his friends, family and subsequently a wider audience knew all the passengers had survived and even saw pictures of the crash site. All well before traditional news channels were able to report on it.

So the answer? My advice, sign up for a Twitter account and start listening to the conversations that interest you and impact your world. You’ll be amazed at the insight available to you – and all in less than 140 characters!