My morning kicked off with a conversation about Twilert and in particular why the site was launched in BETA and what BETA actually means. It got me thinking about my reasoning behind it and I ended at the question of "Why would I ever take the site out of BETA?" For me, BETA means the final version of a service or site before small tweaks are made and a final, clean version is rolled out to the masses. However, that implies that the service is perfect as doesn't require constant TLC, tweaks and improvements and I'm yet to find a single online service that fits in the "perfect" bracket. The point is that, as I am finding with Twilert, user interaction online now means that feedback and advice for online tools and services comes thick and fast and webmasters (for want of a better word) need to react to this feedback by incorporating it into their sites. The feedback will never stop and therefore neither should the tweaking. BETA works for real-world things, things that can't be upgraded or changed en-mass easily. But online, there is no such thing as BETA. Every CEO, CFO and webmaster should treat their site like it is ...

It's been pretty quiet round these parts (again) but there is good reason. Between my day job (usually 2am - 3am) I have been working on a new Twitter application that effectively replicates the Google Alerts service but, yes you guessed it, for Twitter! So, I proudly introduce Twilert.com to the world! Ideal for anyone interested in following opinion or discussion on brands, products, people - anything really. Give it a go, it's dead easy to use and completely free. Let me know what you think. Oh and follow us on Twitter too.

I was catching up with some friends earlier this week, most of which work in some sort of marketing / digital / interactive capacity. During the course of dinner we noticed the array of mobile phones on the table and in particular the fact that 5 out of the 6 phones were iPhones. The conversation moved onto how to engage consumers on the mobile platform (seriously, we have some crazy rock 'n' roll dinners) with half arguing that brands need to engage users through iPhone apps and others arguing that the market share of the iPhone was still too small for it to warrant such a large focus. My view, for what it was worth, was that the focus should be on non-iPhone but there is no reason why this can't be supported through the iPhone. Anyway, it struck me, looking at the array of iPhones on display, how important it is for us to remember that as marketers we aren’t our client’s target audience – and we shouldn’t lose sight of what is the norm for us and what is the norm for the general population. I've see it so often, and I do it myself, when marketers presume audiences behave in ...

I'm beginning to find some innovate ways brands are leveraging the Twitter platform. Two new services caught my eye this week! The first, Qwitter, aims to help stop people smoking. As a non-smoker I haven't tried it but it's simple to get involved. Simply follow Qwitter and send messages to the user (@iquit) telling it how many cigarettes you have had. Qwitter will track how many packs you're getting through and provide tips and advice to help you kick the habit. The second is Tweet What You Spend which, like Qwitter, allows you to send messages and track how much you are spending day to day. What I love about this is the fact that it's such a simple way of engaging an audience through an existing and established platform. Both Qwitter and Tweet What You Spend are the start of brands engaging Twitter users with value-add services. Many of our clients are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, using it as a simple comms tool. But, the examples above show that Twitter is becoming much more than a micro-blogging service and extending beyond comms and into a powerful web app for both brands and consumers.

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article discussing how traditional PR is dead and today's Google Chrome announcement only furthers my belief that PRs must continue to looks at new and interesting ways of communicating to the media and consumers. Google has pulled off, in my opinion, a mini masterstroke by announcing its new browser through a cartoon. Why? Well for a start it's much more interesting than a press release. But, more importantly look at how the story is being reported, there are just as many blog posts and news articles discussing the cartoon as the product itself. The cartoon does nothing more than communicate the key messages and features of Google Chrome but by packaging it in an interesting and unique way, (all of) those messages are reaching the end-user. By discussing or even posting scans of the cartoon the media are doing the equivalent of reprinting a press release. I don't think we can all go start sending out cartoons to journalists, we can't lose sight that the Google brand and this particular announcement carries a fair amount of weight with the media. However, we shouldn't be afraid of exploring new ways of engaging journalists and consumers, especially ...

Today marks the 4th anniversary of BlogDay. To take part the rules are simple: Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2008 Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and Add the BlogDay tag using this link: http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2008 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org - So without further ado, Happy BlogDay 2008: Delightful Work: Coach Tom Volkar provides advice on achieving, as he puts it, "work life freedom". Great blog that should be visited whenever those deadlines start mounting up! PsyBlog: Psychology is little more to me than a fleeting interest however I find this blog incredibly useful for gaining small insights into the way our minds work. For marketers this RSS feed should be a staple The Blog of Tim Ferriss: Any blog with the url fourhourworkweek.com is going to get my vote. Great advice on Tim on working smarter and not harder Chris Brogan: The hardest working man online? Probably! Chris regularly rolls out insightful, in-depth advice and information ...

We all hear of horror stories of journalists being incredibly rude to PRs and many of us have experienced, first hand, exasperation turn to frustration turn to rage after unwittingly selling-in the tenth survey of the afternoon. But recently I'm beginning to understand how they feel and to be honest wonder how they manage not to slam the phone down after two minutes of stumbling over the first sentence of a pitch. As we near the end of the year many industry bodies and magazines start planning their awards ceremonies and with that comes the invitation to "take a table" at the event to PRs and the clients they represent. I have had two already today and the pitching has been so woeful it's a wonder how they manage to fill the smallest of venues. The first one: Sales: "Hi is this Dan" Me: "Yes" S: "Yes...er...hi....um...I'm not sure what clients you look after but we're holding the xxxx 2008 awards in December. Have you heard of them?" M: "Yes" S: "Would you like to book a table?" Second one: Sales: "Hi I'm xxxxx and I'm calling about the xxxx Awards 2008" Me: "Hi" S: "Yes, we would like to invite you to the awards ceremony as I understand you represent xxxx" Me: "Oh ...

Further to my post on client adoption of Twitter, Jeremiah has posted a great article on the evolution of brands using the service.

Just read the latest post in Influential Marketing in amazement! Part of Visa's sponsorship at the Olympics includes payment exclusivity at the games' venues. I have recently seen an increase in business decisions being made without any consideration for how it affects the customer experience. This is by no means a new trend! National Rail introducing voice recognition to its train information hotline a couple of years ago is another example of how businesses forgo the experience of their customers and lose focus on the bigger picture. In this case, they may save some money on phone operators but won't make anything if people stop calling! Twitter is fast going down the same path. First stopping the SMS service to UK customers and the limiting the number of people you can follow. Sure, Twitter may stop haemorrhaging money for a week or so but it means nothing if people stop using it all together. No matter how short-term a business decision is, if it affects customers then the ill-will created will last a lifetime.

This is a guest post by Alex, part of Hill & Knowlton’s Digital team in the UK. In Revolution Magazine this month Nike’s marketing director Simone Pestridge claims that “being prepared to take risks is the only way to create truly successful digital campaigns”. I couldn’t agree more. With every new business brief coming in asking for “digital” the online space is becoming more and more saturated with campaigns therefore to create cut through risks need to be taken which unfortunately for the client might not always be the cheapest. Nike have frequently taken huge risks in their campaigns but can be said to be one of the pioneers of digital marketing campaigns; from Nike id customising shoes online to the Joga Bonito campaign (consumers were asked to submit videos of them receiving the ball from one side of the screen and passing on to the other). A recent Facebook poll has shown that Nike are associated with football then either adidas or Umbro despite their very high profile sponsorship campaigns. I also think it’s fair to say that traditional PR campaigns need to take larger risks as well. By pushing the brand outside of their comfort zone they can gain huge ...