image credit Love in a cold climate… Valentine’s Day message in the snow. Photograph: Anil Dayal/AP www.guardian.co.uk/…/feb/14/sayitwithpoetry

Following our recent .. ahem ‘award win’ for best use of social media we’ve been on a whirlwind tour of top 100 UK brands in Britain talking to them about the use of social media for their organisations. During these visits a familiar feeling came over me which will give away my age a little here. So first a little diversion before I get back to the point of the title of this blog.

When I started out in digital we used to have to persuade companies that they should get a website, they’d read the news, heard the hype, everyone was telling them to get one so they were listening.. sort of. After websites it was (and still is to a degree) the importance of SEO, now its social media. Meeting clients we can see that they are responding to the ‘hype’ around social media, some of them can also remember the process I’ve just listed so are resigned to the ‘fact’ that they should probably engage with this, after all the ‘hype’ was right about the website and was right about SEO. It’s a bit more straight forward because most clients have a facebook account whereas they didn’t have a website.. but still I can see the ‘fear’ on their faces and in most cases what can be best described as a grudging acceptance that they are going to have to get their heads around another complex digital concept and technology shift.

.. anyway back to the title..

The other day I was asked a direct question by a UK based car manufacturer, where in their organisation we felt that ‘social media’ should fit “ is it PR or marketing?” it’s a simple enough question right? And the answer is simple enough too but the implications are actually pretty far reaching I think (btw the answer is both, it sits across both) and poses a significant challenge for agencies wishing to offer social media campaign management to their clients.

Social media campaigns are challenging because they touch on so many parts of the Marcomms Mix and influence or rely upon so many different technologies. It occurred to me that both digital and PR agencies are seeking to claim this space as our own.. but look at each other with cynicism about the others ability to offer the best solution.

In a nut shell, those of us in digital look at PR agencies and are dubious about their grasp of the technology, particularly the overlap with SEO, I think we are also cynical about whether PR agencies really get ‘it’. By this I mean that PR historically has been based around pushing messages whereas Social Media is about conversations, we’d argue that we understand the medium in which these conversations happen ‘properly’ and therefore are better placed to advise upon their use. Finally we’d tag on points about measurability etc and consider the argument won.

In retort I get the impression that PR agencies look at the importance of social media to PR and crisis management and are cynical about our ability to produce the ‘right’ messages and rightly I think they’d be highly dubious about our media relations skills when advising a client upon crisis management issues. There are probably other points to add to this so I’ll extend an open invitation to PR’s to get stuck here on the comments.

Over the last 10 years I’ve had many causes to work closely with my clients media & marketing agencies, I’ve received briefs instigated by PR agencies but so far have had little need for the type of regular communication or even partnerships that I have enjoyed and still enjoy with my clients Media/Marketing agencies. BUT I sense this is changing.. looking at my followers on twitter and those I follow there are a lot of PR agencies engaging and rightly so.. looking at the social media campaigns we are running and being completely honest I increasingly yearn for a stronger basis in traditional PR and see some real opportunities here for us with our clients. From here it isn’t a huge leap of logic to see why finally I am finding myself thinking about PR agencies and my lack of strong relationships with you.. could it be that social media has finally brought us together?

If you’re a PR/PR agency and you are reading this I’d like to hear your thoughts I can’t help feeling that we could work well together here and that through collaboration offer a really solid service to our clients.. what do you think?

It is my great pleasure to announce that Bloom have bagged a DADI Award for Best Use of Social Networking.

The digital marketing team and I have been beavering away creating a social media campaign on behalf of Anglian Home Improvements which was put into action earlier this year. Sadly we can’t give away our magic social media action plan but needless to say it is AWESOME and we are the proud owners of a shiny new jewel for Bloom Towers!

It was an evening of dinner, drinking and Canadian comedy which we shall not soon forget! Alex Craven and I headed down with the team from Anglian to the award ceremony at the Armouries to enjoy an evening of digital celebration – here are some of the highlights!

Collecting the award.

Go team!

We win - Woop woop! (while I look like a mannequin who's been photoshopped in to make the picture look busier)

Alex shows his manly strength

Celebrations continue after the award ceremony...

You can see the full list of commendations and awards over at the DADI website, as well as the full set of photos from the evening. Well done to all the other winners, it’s great to see such diverse work being celebrated in the greatest city in Yorkshire!

See you all next year.

Yay!

I’ve seen people wearing the little necklaces and bracelets, thinking ‘hey that looks nice’. Then I notice the little ‘wwjd’ inscribed somewhere and suddenly I’m think ‘oh, one of those types’.

This morning however, I had a revelation. I think that Jesus really can offer some guidance to me and to all of you.

Communication and gregarious interaction is massive online, and it is ever growing. Our desire to meet and interact with one another has driven a huge outpouring of social media networks all engineered to bring us closer together, help us find old friends and generally stay in touch as much as we can.

As a result of the bolding mass of humanity now on these networks, companies and brands are starting to catch on to spread the word about their products and services. Some might want a wide audience, some a very specific one, and it’s hard for them to know which network to pick that will show them a return.

Jesus was a man who loved communication; he spent most of his life spreading The Word. All he had to do it were his feet, his voice and a small band of followers. So this morning I asked myself, if and when Jesus returns, what would He do? Which social media network would he choose to spread His love?
To help Jesus out when he does get back, I’ve taken the liberty of going to Google Ad Planner and Google Insights (as I’m sure He would) and grabbing some data. This is only a sample of the social networks available, I’m sure the research performed by Jesus Himself will be much more thorough.

Bebo
Many people consider Bebo the children’s social media network, but Jesus would like to teach people from an early age how to respect each other and live in harmony. The domain was registered in October 2000 and has a homepage PageRank of 7, so Jesus knows this is an authoritative site.

Traffic to Bebo

As you can see Jesus could reach a massive 21 million unique visitors over thirty days and the time on site would give Him a good while to get His message across. We should also consider that the daily unique visitors has decreased at the start of 2009, which might temper Jesus’ decision.

Bebo Demographic Information

We can see that our earlier claim is true; Bebo does have a very young user group, most of whom share their house with other siblings. As such Jesus could reach a lot of young people through Bebo. There are also a greater proportion of female users, who are likely to spread the Word even further. The affluence of the households also shows that the purchase of a Bible would not strain the budget too much.

Facebook
Facebook is an altogether more grown up network than Bebo, almost like a walled in internet in its own right. Facebook has a weighty Pagerank of 9 and the domain was registered in 1998, so Jesus is sure that it’s even more of an authority in the world of the internet.

Traffic to Facebook

While traffic has dropped slightly in Jan09, we can see a massive increase in Facebook visits, surging to over two million in late 2008. This means Jesus could reach a massive audience. He could upload photos of His return (by linking his Flikr and Facebook profiles) and promote his other social media profiles from here. The expansive Facebook profile would provide an excellent introduction to Jesus; the man behind the legend.

Facebook Demographic Information

We also see that there are a large number of 25-44 year olds using Facebook, who are perhaps looking for direction in life. Most have an income between £30,000 and £50,000 so they could probably afford to make a donation or even sponsor Jesus’ comeback. In general the members of Facebook report themselves as more educated than those on Bebo, so Jesus can reached a more learned crowd here. The majority of Facebook members do not have children however, so Jesus might not reach as many of the younger generation on here as He could on other networks.

MySpace
Myspace used to be an incredibly popular social media netwotk; it was one of the forerunners on the internet. If Jesus has come back five or six years ago it would have been the perfect place to launch His comeback from. While it is still a strong domain, the visitors have dropped off in recent months:

Traffic to Myspace

As we can see Jesus could only reach a fraction of the people here that He could on Facebook. The advantage of Myspace is that Jesus could upload his sermons here and promote them from his other social media profiles. Should he wish to generate some revenue for his good work, He could even sell them through Myspace Music. To fund His good work.

Myspace Demographic Information

There are a roughly equal number of male and female users on Myspace and the predominant age group is 18-24, so Jesus could reach a younger, more diverse crowd here. The largest income group is £0-£15,000 however, so they may be less inclined to make a donation or buy a Bible.

Friends Reunited
An often overlooked network; Jesus might want to see if he could reconnect to some of His friends (or more likely their prodigy). Friends Reunited is the weakest of the older networks, with a Pagerank of just 6 depsite being nine years old.

Traffic to FriendsReunited

Friends Reunited has suffered from the growth of networks like Myspace and Facebook, however Jesus might still want to reach the niche crowd who use this social network. While it is unlikely that any his old buddies would still be alive, maybe people are looking for him?

FriendsReunited Demographic Information

There are a large proportion of middle aged female users on Friends Reunited, who could be the perfect audience for Jesus. They have a larger income, they are looking for friends, and the majority do not have children in the home. The majority of users only have some college education, so they may be looking for somewhere vocational to apply themselves. Friends Reunited could be the ideal place for Jesus to begin gathering a new flock.

So what Would Jesus Do?

Now I don’t want to put words into the mouth of The Lord, however I believe Jesus would use a combination of these networks to boost His presence online. He would pick one (possibly Facebook) with a large user base and functionality he could use (such as photo, video and file sharing, account linking) as a base, and syndicate news through the other networks.

He would probably also set up a YouTube account to upload his teachings to, a Twitter account to answer ad hoc questions and keep everyone in the loop and possibly even a Digg/Reddit account to show his followers what He approves/disproves of quickly and easily.

Once Jesus was up to speed with developments since His death, I would imagine he would start His own blog, using that as a base for teachings and updating His social media profiles when new content appeared. This would give Him a strong social media network to distribute His views through a number of media, to a number of demographics and a huge online audience. A network like this would let Him interact with more people, more directly than He ever had before.