Facebook me sweetie

OK, more survey stuff, but it's interesting! This time it's a survey about couples publicly dumping each other online. The survey is by a company called Swizzels Matlow, that makes sweets/candy/lollies (UK/US/AUS) so I'm not too sure of the actual link...... "We're sweeter than your sweetheart"??

That aside, the findings are interesting. a whopping 48 per cent of under 18's have publicly dumped their significant/not-so-significant other via social networks like MySpace and Facebook. Add to that that 18 per cent of 22-30 year-olds are guilty of the same crime and you've got some juicy figures.

Now, having dug-up a bit more info online, I've actually found the reason for the survey (see, proper blog this) and it's actually quite cleaver. Swizzels Matlow is the producer of a certain rather popular and retro type of sweet/candy/lollies called Love Hearts - you know, "Hug me" "Flirt" and guess what? They are in negotiating with Facebook to include "Facebook me" and.... they've timed the whole lot with Valentine's day - big pat on the back guys and gals.

MyTake - brilliant piece of PR using a tried and tested tactic. The findings themselves are really interesting if not that astounding. It's proof that more and more of our everyday life is being conducted through Facebook. I remember when the stories about "text dumping" started to come out years ago and guess what - that was way after the tipping point for texting. So guess what, Facebook has tipped.

Facehooked

A new survey out today reveals a couple of boring facts and one interesting fact. The boring facts are that we're addicted to coffee and chocolate.....sounds like my better half (sorry dear). The interesting fact is that the UK is actually "addicted" to Facebook. Facebook is one of the top three addictions cited in a recent survey conducted by the Living Channel to promote the launch of their new show, Rehab. Plug done.

Now, we knew it, didn't we? I think there's something very English about this fact and if we look at the type of behaviour that typified our parents and grandparents, there's probably a lot of similarities about the way we interact on Facebook - check it out:

• Checking your news feed, but never updating your status = Watching your neighbours from behind the net curtains
• Regularly updating your status but not checking what anyone else was doing = Mrs Bucket visiting her long suffering neighbours
• Direct messages between two people about a third = Going round Ivy's for a cup of tea, a cake and a gossip about Dora down the road

All joking aside, when surveys like this come out it's about time for people to accept the importance of the medium, in this case Facebook. With such a large proportion of the population on Facebook representing everyone from the average housewife to politicians, isn't it in fact the place to be? I think so.

MyTake - Next time someone asks "what's the point of Facebook" you can tell them "the same as coffee and chocolate". Sarcasm aside, social networking is just going to get bigger and bigger and will eventually represent a huge percentage of our interaction with each other. Throw in our English eccentricities and you've got a recipe for success.

Next-gen comics

It's not often that you come across a new type of content, but today was one of those days for me. Take a look at this from Marvel. They are called Motion Comics and they are "not quite comics and not quite animation" - sounds like most of the cartoons my daughter watches.



The first Motion Comic to be released will be "Astonishing X-Men" and I have to say, it looks quite interesting. I think I have seen a few things like this before, but the big question is whether or not this actually catches on among a fairly tight community,

MyTake - How often do you see a new type of content, not often (as I already said...bad blogger) which is what makes this so interesting. The other interesting aspect of this is the level of innovation in a fairly tactile community - aren't comic fans interested in actually owning the comics anymore? Will it catch on, who knows, will it help expand the audience base thanks to the huge popularity of the likes of iTunes, who knows....... will it give comic fans another way to get their fix, for sure.

Flashers and flashmobs at Liverpool street

Flicking through a popular free London paper yesterday I came across a story about a flashmob organised via Facebook, mimicking a popular TV for a mobile telco. My first thought was one of amazement at the continued popularity of flashmobs, but then I started thinking about the actual PR idea behind the flashmob.

Flashmobs have been around for a while now and there have been some very successful ones and some not so successful. Most of the successful ones have not been organised by brands or on behalf of brand, they have been for individual causes, or more often than not for no reason whatsoever - think about the Rickrolling event at Charing Cross last year. Now I've yet to make my mind up on how involved the actual brand was in this, as it attracted up to 13,000 people (including some guy that stripped off) and that's a hell of a lot of "willing" volunteers!



As mentioned, it was organised through Facebook and it generated a hell of a result that will surely have some traction for the brand - whether or not they were involved or not. It begs the question, are the social networks opening up to the world of marketing to a greater extent?

MyTake - Brilliant brand awareness and if it was a managed and delivered campaign, then a big pat on the back to all involved. From a marketing perspective, the social networks have always been a bit of a sacred place and the likes of Facebook is littered with cock-ups by a whole host of different companies, but perhaps this is good news for marketers.....build it and they will come.

Are they listening?

Warning to some of my more conservative readers, this video contains more profanities than an episode of Gordon Ramsey's The F Word featuring several big brother contestants..... but it's damn funny.

I was actually in an interview a few days ago taking about launching new technology products and touched upon the issues raised in this video. Take a look and I'll explain.



As much as we'd like to try and deny it, there's a lot of truth in that video. In the interview I was talking about before the video, I was talking about the numerous technology and internet launches that promise the world, don't deliver and use use an Australian phrase "shoot throw like a Bondi tram". Some of the most successful gadgets or internet start-ups are those that are based on real customer insights, those that understand the needs and wants of that audience and then delivers them in a simply, easy-to-use, shiny box.

MyTake - Brands do need to start and listen a hell of a lot more and they need to respond to their audiences, both in the form of conversation and in the resulting products. Social media is probably to most effective testing pool in the world, when it comes to product development brands don't really have a more transparent tool at their disposal.

Fry's top of the tweets

One of my favourite ports of call when it comes to interesting and original news is The Times Online. During my first stint in London I was actually quite good pals with the online time who I have to say have done an absolutely outstanding job. Today I was reading a story about the most popular celebrities on Twitter, which was really very interesting.... for more than one reason

Top of the list was none other that Stephen Fry, which I can actually understand, but other notables include the likes of Lance Armstrong, Britney Spears and Rick Sanchez..... don't worry if you don't know him, he's actually a US news anchorman.

The really interesting story for me isn't who's the most popular, but it's the relationship between them and their audience. What better way of getting your celebrity fix than checking their Twitter feed? It's real (we hope), up to date and actually authored (we hope) by your favourite celeb - what could be better, how can the likes of OK and Reveal compete with that?

MyTake - Is this the gossip mag for a whole new generation, the celebrity's very own broadcasting channel? It could be, and for me if I actually wanted to find out what my favourite celeb was doing that's the first place i'd look. But what about the people that actually are interested in that kind of content, is Twitter at the point where they even know it exists or is this type of usage that actually pushes it right the way through to the mainstream. Time (as usual) will tell