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Those that follow this blog will know I’m an advocate of Twitter in the sense that it allows brands to connect with their customers at ground level in a non-intrusive way. But, tonight I realised one of the major advantages of Twitter that could make it rival Google in the search sector.

Two things happened:

Firstly, I was watching tonight’s episode of Top Gear and Jezza showed a joke on the on-set TV during the “News” segment. The audience laughed but the cameras panned back to intentionally ensure living room viewers couldn’t see what was being shown. Odd I thought – so I jumped onto my generally-on laptop and did a search on Google to see if it could shed any light as to what was shown. Unfortunately not and I was none-the-wiser

Then…

Flicking around Sky I stumbled halfway into the Nascar Brickyard 400 being shown on Sky Sports. No sooner are we on-track than the producers taken us into the studio and a discussion starts about “how ridiculous this situation is. Nascar should be embarrassed!”. Sounds interesting, so as before I tap my search in as quick as a flash but again no clues. Then it hits me…Twitter Search. Sure enough DavidWallace gives me the inside track (pardon the pun). Goodyear have screwed up and there’s a yellow flag every 15 laps (indeed a ridiculous situation)

Twitter recently picked up Summize and swiftly turned it into Twitter Search that allows people to search through every Tweet up to the second. Whilst this is nowhere near as extensive as a Google Search, the advantage of Twitter Search is that it’s literally up-to-the-second. By the time Google’s spiders pick up the news my interest has gone, I want to know what the score is right now and fortunately 140 characters is enough to satisfy my intrigue.

I appreciate this is all a bit obvious, the entire premise of Twitter is that fact that it’s a collection people’s musings and thoughts at any point in time. However, as membership grows it will become an even more important and useful tool for any Internet user. People are questioning where the future of Twitter lies and in my view it is Twitter Search – perhaps not a rival to the current search giants but certainly an increasingly useful alternative.

Thank god we don’t have clients like this in PR….er!

Thanks Brendan!

What a difference a day makes. I go and sing the praises of Twitter one day, and today it screws me!

I use the ever-reliable TwitterFox to keep tracks on the various tweets I subscribe to. That’s odd I thought, haven’t heard much from anyone in a while – I usually have 20 tweets per hour (TPH), let me check…

…sure enough Twitter has lost those I follow and those that follow me!

Despite this, people are using the service – mainly to bitch about how Twitter has screwed them.

How ironic.

According to mad.co.uk, Guardian.co.uk has become the first UK newspaper site to notch up more than 20m unique users a month. The site saw a 12% increase month-on-month, a stark contrast to previous sector leader Mail Online, which experienced a record audience loss of 14.4%!

Bebo is an interesting concept for PRs and Marketers. Despite reporting strong viewing figures (11.4 million in the UK with visitors averaging more than 3 hours and 30 minutes on the site during the month) how useful / ethical / effective is it really when engaging with consumers?

There are many upsides to it – huge levels of personalisation, open to application developments, a captive audience to engage in any activity – however, I wonder about a couple of aspects of Bebo.

One of my main concerns about using Bebo as a tool to engage with consumers is that the site is aimed at a much younger teen and pre-teen audience. With advertisers being clamped down on advertising fast food to children and toy manufacturers getting lambasted for the same reason is it ethical to target them on social media sites where we know that they are likely to be spending a great deal of time?

Personally, I’m dubious, if I felt that the consumer in question was genuinely getting something out of the campaign other than brand messages being rammed down their throat I’d be ok with it, otherwise, I think on an ethical basis I’d be forced to advise my client against it.

Also, whilst Facebook is embracing mobile technology left right and centre, Bebo seems slow on the uptake – my 13 year old cousin has a mobile phone and a Bebo profile but never uses them both at the same time whereas I use my mobile and iPod Touch to access Facebook. It seems to me to be a missed opportunity both for marketers and for Bebo (a recent study by “3″ showed that 45% of respondents access web sites every day while 62% check their mails. A further 24% are using their mobiles to access their social networking sites).

This is the area I feel will be the next step for social networking sites (SNS) and marketers – truly embracing the link between mobile and SNS. There is obviously a cost element involved which puts off most Clients however, I can’t help but feel that there is a real missed opportunity to combine the two elements together – all it takes is for one client to give it a chance, it might work, it might not, but someone needs to be brave enough to give it a try.

Alex is part of Hill & Knowlton’s Digital team in the UK.

Very good list of (mainly American) companies utilising social media to connect with their audiences, courtesy of Mashable.

BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have all signed up to a new deal with the music industry in a bid to tackle piracy online. For now this means that thousands of ISP customers suspected of sharing music will receive letters asking them to stop.

A small step in the right direction but in reality telling people to stop sharing music does nothing. People don’t do it because they don’t know it’s wrong – they do it because the music industry has seen fit to charge consumers extortionate amount of money for music over the past 25 years!

I refuse to pay for albums and singles but get around it by using the very good Napster (flat fee for unlimited listening). And with the likes of Pandora and Last.fm becoming more mainstream the music industry is fighting a losing battle.

The solution is not to wag the finger at consumers or switch their internet connection off, which is what the music industry is pushing for. The crux of the issue is that the music industry has not adapted to changing consumer needs. Why pay £15 for an album when that same amount will give me to listen to unlimited music and put it on my MP3 player. Until the music industry realise the world is very different from that of over two decade ago and change the fundamental elements of how they conduct business, people will share music.

The answer is simple: labels – make your catalogue available online and charge a flat fee to listen to it. Split a cut of the revenue amongst the artists based on whose music is being played, you can keep the rest!

See what Kid Rock has to say on the matter:

I went for it! I saw the opening, went out on a limb, risked ridicule but I did it. That’s right, I recommended to a client that they should be on Twitter!

I’ve been using Twitter for only a month or so now after being convinced of its value by our very passionate Director of Planning here at H&K. Here’s another crazy American getting excited by today’s shiny new toy – here today gone tomorrow, I thought. And, in the beginning I felt justified in my attitude towards it. I signed up to play along and thought I’d give it an honest go….ooohhh 3 followers, I’m c-list.

But, then the cravings started. I had to tell the world about every little incident in my life. “Working late, again”, “I’ve just downloaded Firefox” etc etc. It became an addiction and recently I became a “pusher” – dealing Twitter to anyone who would listen and today I strayed into unknown territory – my clients.

You see the truth is, over the past month Twitter has become an incredibly useful tool for me and the value to brands I work with has become more apparent.

It instantly provides a snapshot of what consumers are thinking about your brand, product or service:

“Loving the new Facebook design”

“Still can’t activate my iPhone”

“iPint is an awesome game to play at work … I need to get virtually hammered today!!! I’m on my 15th pint”

But, the conversation needs to be two way. Why should consumers share their thoughts on a brand when the brand gives nothing back? Twitter provides a very simple, non-intrusive way of connecting with consumers with a genuine interest in your products. How many chances do our clients get to engage their audiences in real-time discussion? Not many, but the opportunity to do so is a 5-minute sign-up form away.

Twitter may be a flash in the online pan but, while it is here, brands should be using it to connect with their customers, engage in discussions and understand their products from the perspective of those that use them.

My client is apprehensive but is willing to give it a go. It won’t revolutionise their communications but it will certainly extend it.

Social networking site, Finerday, is set to launch later this week. Facebookers need not worry, this is social networking with a difference – it’s aimed at over 60s. The idea behind it is to allow families with elderly relatives to keep in touch.

It’s not the first site targeted at retirees but what marks it out from the crowd is its emphasis on accessibility. If you visit the site you’ll see a carefully planned roll-out to ease your grandparents into the whole social networking game.

A recent Mintel report shows that the number of 55 – 64 year-olds using the internet has grown to 66% over the past five years, so Finerday could be onto a winner.

At the very least the seedy underworld of late night bridge parties will be uncovered!

The AmIHotorNot of brands, Superbrands, has today announced its top brands in the UK and Google has knocked Microsoft off of top spot. Sony is the other tech brand to edge into the top 10 as the sector dominated the overall list.

It will be interesting to see how the growing privacy debate affects the public’s affection for the search engine over the next 12 months! But for now they’re sitting pretty…

The top 10 looks like this…

1. Google
2. Microsoft
3. Mercedes-Benz
4. BBC
5. British Airways
6. Royal Doulton
7. BMW
8. Bosch
9. Nike
10. Sony