Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 3:16 pm. 0 comments
Economist Dr Paul Woolley shared his thoughts on the current economic climate at Loewy’s monthly Mandrake networking event at the Adam Street Club, London last night. His thoughts marked a stark contrast to those mooted by Dennis Turner, HSBC’s Chief Economist at the Mandrake Club back in January 2008 (summed up by Wadds: UK economy is dull). But, 12 months is a long time in finance, and I guess there are a lot of economists with egg on their faces.
Here’s my take on what he said:
- The financial markets are dysfunctional: agents such as advisors and brokers capture most of the return in the financial market and subsequently set prices in their own favour. Unless this model is addressed then the problems that are happening in the finance market today, will keep happening.
- Model for valuing businesses needs to be reviewed: share prices reflect the collective wisdom of what the market believes businesses will earn in the future. This valuation model over-priced tech companies in the ‘tech bubble’. The same thing has happened to the financial market.
- Tech bubble should have set alarm bells ringing: The current financial crisis can be traced back to the tech bubble and the lack of intervention. Policy makers need to take another look at financial theory, so it can offer a more stable financial market in the future.
- Financial market will be knocked down to its real size: Half or a third of what it is today. This will include the peripheral services such as accountants and lawyers etc.
- Did media panic cause the recession? Quite the opposite. Whilst the media has a tendency to give things a shove once they are rolling down the hill, it did not accelerate or cause the recession. If the media is guilty of anything, it is for not alerting us to the problem earlier.
- Buy shares? He wouldn’t right now. Of his investments before the recent market unpredictability, the one that is making the most money was an indulgence at the time rather than the funds that he thought would profit.
- Euro will be tested: Two countries will drop out of the Euro in the next five years. The UK is in a better position by not being in the Euro. Ireland will suffer more because it has the Euro. It will experience a higher level of unemployment and its GDP will be hit harder.
- Has the Government got a grip of the economic crisis? It is fire fighting. No real grip at the moment. The future is uncertain, but it won’t be boring.
Well, I doubt anyone will be calling UK economics dull for some time. It seems selfish profiting, over inflated price tags and a lack of questioning got us into this mess. Is it time we starting acting for the greater good, stop thinking about how we can profit and how we can help to protect the business that we are in? Or, will that just kill our drive? No doubt it is a combination of both.
At the very least, we should start questioning the latest buzz and its financial worth. Take a look at Twitter; CNET reported in November 2008 that Twitter had turned down a $500m offer from Facebook, the social networking site which is valued in excess of $15bn. Is either company really worth their price tags? Or, is it just more over-inflation?
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago at 7:11 pm. 0 comments
Barack Obama’s inauguration took world stage on Tuesday, with the new digitally-savvy presidential team sparking a social-media frenzy.
Mike Harvey, Technology Correspondent for the Times Online reported that the White House website was given a face-lift in time for the inauguration. The first blog post promised ‘video and slide shows of inauguration events, the Obamas’ move into the presidential residence and the new president’s first days in office’.
While, Helena Deards at editorsweblog.org reported that Obama had already ‘invented an alternative media model’ during his presidential campaign - from his fireside speeches being streamed to youTube to his personal Facebook, mySpace and Twitter accounts.’
The inauguration was reportedly the cause of a large traffic spike, with US telco providers reporting internet traffic increases of between 5% and 40% per cent; see Arbor Networks’ post on the ‘Great Obama Traffic Flood’.
Social media is now firmly embedded into Obama’s armoury. Watch this space!
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago at 6:20 pm. 0 comments
Phil Muncaster’s article ‘Twitter takes off in the UK’, sets the right playing field for proving Darren Rowse’ post on ‘Why Twitter Will Go Mainstream in 2009’ right. According to research from Hitwise, Twitter is the 291st most visited web site in the UK, the result of a 974 per cent increase in traffic since 19th January 2008.
Plus, Philip Schofield brought twittering to new heights on Tuesday when he caused a ‘twett sensation’ by confessing his tweet habits on This Morning.
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago at 3:19 pm. 1 comment
Econsultancy’s report on Online PR Trends Briefing raised some interesting points around monitoring and measurement as Wadds’ has spotlighted on his blog. We’ve picked out some more words of wisdom from the report:
- “You can’t measure everything. Organisations need to understand what to measure and how to use the data to gain insights.”
- “The industry has been “bombarded” with tools to measure reputation, but “it’s about taking them out of the„hype cycle‟ and promoting widespread adoption.”.
- “Never Twitter in anger.” “Think before you Tweet.”
- “The tweetstorm has superseded blogstorms from a few years ago; negative commentary can be distributed across blogs within hours, compared to Twitter, which allows dissemination within minutes.”
- “The challenge for PR professionals is to redefine PR and the value it brings to brands and organisations through online channels.”
The report also raised the question of whether traditional PR agencies have an understanding of online PR techniques past straightforward link building. Whilst, there is little doubt that the PR industry is still developing its online skill set, the boundaries between traditional PR and online PR are already blurring. Take a look at how the Internet cable story spread across traditional outlets, blogs and micro-blogs.
Surely 2009 is about PROs developing a full compliment of online skills in order to help maximise their clients’ external communication strategies? With ‘tweetstorms’ moving at lightening pace, traditional PR teams need to be ready to respond and advise their clients.
Posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago at 10:40 am. 0 comments
John Naughton at The Observer gives Twitter a mention in his 2009 predictions;
“On the web, we will see whether Twitter, geeks’ beloved microblogging service, can find a viable business model. Given that Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson have just discovered, and signed up for, the service, it has clearly peaked. When boobies like that are using it, all persons of taste flee.”
Whilst some of us may not be interested in whether Jonathan Ross is on Twitter, it is another step towards the mainstream. Whilst the Daily Mail’s take on
Celebrities signing up to Twitter may not be entirely positive, the site has attracted, a not so shabby, six million users since 2006.
Will 2009 be the year that Twitter starts to make businesses pay for the service? And, if so how? Surely, subscriptions won’t work?
Posted 6 months ago at 12:18 pm. 0 comments
Darren Rowse’ post on ‘Why Twitter Will Go Mainstream’ In 2009 has secured 61 active tweets and will reach an estimated 44,686 followers, according to Twitt(url)y.
His reasons as to why he thinks Twitter will take hold in 2009:
Mainstream media is starting to pay attention
Important news worthy events are well documented and break on Twitter
Early adopters who lost interest will return
The next president of the US has been using Twitter
CNN is using Twitter for input in News reports
Twitterbots are becoming big through adding value
Twitter has become the dominant communication method on conferences
Through Twitter you can actually get your complaint resolved, fast!
More services build on Twitter get funded
Companies start to communicate PR messages through Twitter
Whilst, there is no doubt that Twitter made its mark in 2008. The array of Twitter tools now available is testament to that (just take a look at Brian Solis’ post on ‘Twitter Tools for Community and Communications Professionals’). The term ‘mainstream’, might be a little over ambitious.
However, when it comes to the b2b technology sphere there is no doubt that more news stories will be broken and discussed on Twitter, more PRs will be tracking journalist tweets and journalists will be feeding their news in the Twitter ecosystem in 2009.
So, for 2010.. an established and reliable measurement tool?
Posted 6 months ago at 10:40 pm. 0 comments
A typical newsjack for a business-to-business technology client used to be about getting your client mentioned in its trade, business and national media targets. Pick up the phone; send out email comment; set up an interview or two; collect press clippings; job done. Well, the essence of newsjacking hasn’t changed in 2008. But, it has evolved to include an array of digital considerations.
A good example of newsjacking comes from Susannah Wyeth, director at Lighthouse PR. The story: ‘sub-sea cables carrying more than seventy five per cent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe and America have been damaged’ broke on Friday 19th December 2008.
Lighthouse PR client Interoute was offering comment.
The story secured coverage across broadcast, national and trade media, including: BBC News 24, BBC World News, Radio 5 Live, FT.com, Sky News, The Guardian, BBC News Online, Bloomberg, Computer Weekly and Broadband Reports.
And, then the digital…
- BBC News, The Guardian, Times Online twittered about their news stories
- Interoute was mentioned in over 50 blog posts - including this piece on the Times Online blog which then led to the news piece!, The Times blog post attracted 311 comments
- 19 Tweets on the story mentioned Interoute
Posted 6 months ago at 4:54 pm. 1 comment
The call centre worker that got caught out by his employer for pulling a ‘sickie’ after changing his status on Facebook to ‘not going to work, f*** it I’m still trashed SICKIE WOO’, was a clear indicator that any information you place online can quite easily be fed into your professional life.
In fact, Xobni, a productivity enhancer for your inbox, is making it even easier. Taking your profile picture from Facebook, your contact details from LinkedIn and corporate profile from Hoovers, it provides an easy snapshot of information on the email sender. If that is not enough, it offers an excellent search facility for those that have forgotten to file that all too crucial email. It can pull up an old email conversation, retrieve an attachment or provide some analytics on who emails you the most and at what time of the day.
The downside? It can slow down your inbox slightly.
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 12:28 pm. 0 comments
Microsoft has given its Windows Live application a makeover in a bid to make inroads into social networking. Bearing similar functionality to Facebook, users of Windows Live applications can now create a platform to communicate with their friends, colleagues or business partners. Whether it is updating their profile, adding photos or sharing videos, users can synchronise their online life from one point.
Microsoft isn’t just attempting to break into social networking again, it is planning to connect people to all their favourite sites such as Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Photobucket. Okay, so Microsoft might not see flocks of Facebook activists jumping ship in the near future, but if its integration feature proves to be impressive, a fair few Hotmail or MSN users might standardise on the new platform.
Integration will no doubt win a few hearts as social networking matures. And, we hope it will help a few of the time-poor business execs embrace some of the new platforms.
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 3:05 pm. 0 comments
Tim O’Reilly, who coined the term ‘Web 2.0’, has warned a summit in San Francisco that Web 2.0 must grow up and focus on real problems, according to BBC News.
Whilst everyone has engaged with one or two of the Web 2.0 fads over the years, most are getting bored with the pointless applications and are looking for tools that will either help them communicate or improve their business.
With analysts predicting a huge amount of growth for social networking, online video, and voice over IP, here’s hoping this growth will bring some stringent measurement tools.
Whilst businesses have started communicating with their stakeholders in new online communities, budget holders (or marketing departments) will soon be asking for proof of how influential these sites are – especially in a recession.
