As the footy season is nearly upon us, it might seem prudent to point out a couple of good pieces on football and social media (one of them written by a guy who did a book on football) that give pointers on how clubs of all sizes could increase interaction with their fans:

Read more…

Glad this wasn’t touted as a PR/Social Media Friday Fun Challenge: it’s a robot that mimics births. Complete with Japanese robot voice.

Many thanks, if thanks is the word to the never-dull Warren Ellis for that one.

I love Edinburgh as a city. While it doesn’t have the buzz of Glasgow, it is far more relaxed, like a Brussels without the bars. Or diamonds for that matter. But one thing it has plenty of is social media activists and practitioners. It also has a stonking huge festival or two. And now they’ve all come together for the good of Scotland. Or to fight evil. Or something. What it won’t be though is dull…

Read more…

So, as part of a plan to lighten things up around here, I asked for submissions for fictional PR problems (inspired by my Star Trek social media and PR post) and got some really good replies (at least if no-one gives me a new one next week, there’s plenty here to play with). Thanks everyone for the entries, the winner for this week was from the wonderful Barry Dewar:

A giant Japanese monster descends on the UK. The police are quickly overwhelmed while people and property is being destroyed. The press discover that it’s all being stage-managed by an evil criminal mastermind with a self-image problem. The world teeters on the edge of distaster….Save us Social Media!

Read more…

With every passing week, more and more people proclaim Facebook to be the future of everything for social media and digital engagement (even in Scotland!) and it continues to expand to try and do more things (and here’s 10 tips for using Facebook well). But there’s one thing that it can’t do at all. In fact, given how much this one made MySpace the player it was for a while, it’s very surprising.

Upload MP3s.

Yes, you can upload video easily enough via one click, but try putting the humble audio file up there as easily. No chance.

(Yes, Google has a couple of workarounds but you would have thought – even with piracy concerns – that MP3 upload would have been in there.)

Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay’s whisky Master Blender is over in New Orleans just now for Tales of The Cocktail, which sounds like a great event judging by the Twitter stream. Now one part of it is a talk on Keeping Ahead in an Online World, which is being hosted by Paul Clarke and Lindsey Johnson of Lush Life.

Now Richard’s going along as well and he asked me what pointers – based on my work with BrewDog, Tesco Scotland, Whyte & Mackay, Jura Whisky, Snow Leopard Vodka and other brands in online engagement – I could offer those at TOTC and those who sadly can’t make it.

So in that spirit, pour a drink and here’s some quick tips. Anyone who needs more pointers or has questions should get in touch (details above). There’s also a bottle of 22-year-old Scotch whisky up for grabs for those who read to the end…

Read more…

Amazon UK has launched a grocery store, complete with listings for beer and spirits. Now just as Amazon was called the death of the local bookshop, is this the death not only of the local grocer but also the smaller companies doing e-retailing? After all, why spend money getting your own website store up and running when you can just be listed in Amazon?

Read more…

Interesting couple of days in the old Scottish Social Media Scene (I’m actually starting to think that the balloon’s about to burst but that’s a post for another day – or a sign I need to get out more) but there were a few things that popped up – one on Twyberbullying and one on digital terrorism*

Now they may have the right sentiment, but also make me want to turn round and say fuck right off and don’t even kid on that a disagreement online is the same as the torment and pain that comes with real bullying and terrorism.

Now that we’ve set the tone, shall we continue?

Read more…

The Sun – like many other publications has brought out an iPad app – and it’s something I’ve been waiting a long time for – the full and proper paper in a digital form.

But there’s one problem: it’s not The Sun that you get in this country…

Read more…

This funny post about a World Cup PR and podcast FAIL got me chuckling, but also wondering: why is it that a lot of PRs don’t listen to podcasts? (yes, it’s sweeping generalisation time!)

Read more…