Scotland sees new alcohol sales rules coming into place this weekend with the aim or curbing cheap multi-buy discounts being one of the primary goals.

But, as The Drum and The Law Society of Scotland point out, there are always unintneded consquences. In this case, it’s to do with the part of the law that states you cannot advertise alcohol within 200m of the actual alcohol.

That’s going to hit social media, especially the use of mobile…
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There’s an interesting story over at The Drum about a row having broken out between Liverpool City Councillors and the local press. In short, the council is banning their press officers from speaking to the papers. As you would expect, the CIPR and PRCA have condemned this, calling it daft.

But when you look at circulation and online presence, the council could go online and reach more people than they can through the traditional press. They’d also be more in control of the message. And this is the shape of things to come.
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There’s been a few instances recently (including one where I was giving a quick Twitter masterclass to some police at 2am but that’s a story for another day) where it’s been clear that for many in the Scottish emergency services – regardless of it being the police, ambulance service, coastguard or fire and rescue services – social media is still something that’s viewed with a range of emotions from suspicion to hostility or ignorance. Recent events down south have done nothing to help get rid of that viewpoint either.

Now I believe social media could be a fantastic tool for the 999 services – from building grassroots community relations to helping prevent crime and get results on crime – and I’d like to do my bit to help.

I’m willing to offer free one-day training course/presentation on social media which will be backed up by the courses being made available as podcasts – video and audio – for others in the forces to view/listen to at their leisure.

The courses will cover:

• Why people use social media
• How the service could use social media/ideas for engagement
• A look at the most popular platforms – Twitter, Facebook, blogging, LinkedIn, GeoLocation services, online video, podcasts
• What costs are involved – financial and time and how to minimise them
• IT and HR issues around social media and how to overcome them
• How to engage
• Crowdsourcing
• How to measure effectiveness

As stated above, there’s no charge for the course (though travelling expenses may be incurred depending on location). If anyone is interested all they have do is get in touch via the email address or phone number at the top right of the page.

The whole phone hacking issue been covered elsewhere and better in-depth than I can give time to, but this one item did impress me.

While it’s fair to say that until Edelman PR got on board the phone hacking tale was a PR disaster for News International (and has since been turned round really well) there’s been one nice PR touch by the likes of Trinity Mirror and so on… they’ve kept the text specific to ‘phone hacking’ so they can talk about that – and deny it – without talking about the other tricks known to have been used at papers where reporters would receive lists of outgoing calls made by people at certain addresses from insiders at friendly phone companies. Said reporter would then go through the phone numbers and dial away to try and find a story.

It’s not hacking but it’s in the same area – invasion of privacy by accessing data people would expect to be kept confidential.

And again, like phone hacking to be honest, that’s an OK tactic if you’re chasing dodgy types – criminals, corrupt politicians and so on – but not authors, footballers and other ‘celebrities’.

Those fine people at the Social Media Academy/Social Media Library have put on a one day event about Twitter called Twitter in Scotland and, as you would expect, it has a hashtag – #twitterscot – but there’s a fair few people chatting about it online. I’ll list their details below but if anyone has been missed out, feel free to add your name in the comments sections…

@craigmcgill

@whyteandmackay

@jurawhisky

@scottgdouglas

@iainpope73

@musaaberdeen

@daily_record

@aberdeencc

@millerhomesuk

@smlupdates

@stu_mackenzie

@lorraine_fraser

@alahiffe

@stephanie_todd

@crowdsurfing

@simpleaud

@peterdsampson

@kellymfarrell

@miss_ell1

@tzanaj

I am utterly delighted to be announcing ex-Digital Editor of the Daily Record and STV Local Editor Iain Hepburn has joined Contently Managed as the country’s first Director of Brand Journalism allowing us to add to our social media package to businesses in Scotland.

This, as they say, is exciting times folks…

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Tesco Scotland had a little IT hitch (though it may have been a PR stunt, you never know) with the result being that you were able to buy three cases of beer for £11.

But how did word spread so quickly to cause the police needing to be called in to certain stores? Quite simple – social media and mobile phones, in particular SMS. But there was one other element to this: the messages on Twitter, Facebook and blogs as well as the mobile text messages all came from people that the receiver knew – in other words a trusted network.

And that’s what made the difference. If the message ‘Tesco giving away beer at £11′ had been from strangers or companies, then it would have been treated sceptically or as spam (and ignored). But because it came from people that the end receiver (in this case, you and I) had previous, trusted relationships with, we knew it was legit. And many people jumped in the car.

The next time someone asks what’s the power of digital communications, get them to call their local Tesco and ask how much beer they had on their shelves left at end of business on June 1 2010.

Why you want to be part of or create a trusted network

If people trust you, they will believe you and have a deeper relationship with you. If you are a company or brand, that makes them more likely to want to spend time and money with you. If you’re part of a trusted network you have credibility.

How to become part of a trusted network

Engage with people on their terms and platforms, don’t sell to them all the time online. Be helpful, be conversational. Talk with them, not to them. And always remember the 7:2:1 rule of engagement – only one in every ten of your posts should be a blatant product sell.

Now this is what I call digital democracy. There’s tons that could be said about the Scottish Elections last week (or you can read this post, this post, this post and listen to this Audioboo and that pretty much covers it) but here’s something that’s popped up that gives all online types a chance to be involved (even if just a wee bit)…

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The BBC seems to be in a bit of a muddle regarding social media use for staff, according to politics site Guido Fawkes. Business Editor Robert Peston cracked a sexual joke about the Royal Wedding and was asked to remove the joke, which he did (you can see what the gag was here). And it’s not the first time the BBC has had problems with Twitter.

Now you can read Guido’s article as BBC bashing but it does have a fair point – are the feeds the staff post on personal or private? Apparently, they are private. In which case, does the BBC have a right to censor it?

What’s the lesson here for businesses in Scotland and elsewhere thinking of social media?

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For years, business types have been told – time and time again – to make sure they have their own domain names and professional looking email addresses. It’s a basic thing. It inspires confidence in who you are dealing with and you’re going to feel better dealing with a pro than someome with a Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail account as their primary work address.

Which begs the question: why are so many politicians not being professional? Don’t they see how bad it makes them look when they hand out tacky-named Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail addresses?

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