In the early hours of Wednesday 16th May, 8,000 hand-made clay figures appeared around Manchester’s busiest streets, designed to reflect the rushed, early morning commutes made by those who were most likely to find them.

The public were encouraged to take away the figures for their own enjoyment and share their thoughts, films and photos online. As such, word spread very quickly on twitter of their existence, with many people tweeting pictures and details of their locations, so much so the hashtag #littleclaymen began trending.

The models, designed by artist Lawrence Epps were placed around the city as part of an exhibition, at the Future Everything festival at MOSI, which celebrates the latest developments in art, music and technology. Lawrence had previously created similar artwork in London and Stoke.

Whilst many had no idea about their existence and merely stumbled across this brilliant piece of the exhibition, many were actively on the hunt for them, following tweets from MOSI and FutureEverything as to their impending arrival on the streets. The response was incredible, urging workers to use their lunch breaks to scour areas in which they had been spotted, and taking them as desk mascots!

The little clay men succeeded in raising awareness of the festival, creating chatter and interest in the build up to the event.

It remains to be seen how successful the little clay men were in directly driving footfall. What they have accomplished, however, is successfully allowing the public to interact with the festival, taking it out of the confines of the museum and firing up the imagination of the public.

(Image courtesy of www.sykey.org)

Over the weekend I was desperately sad to read (via twitter) that my hometown paper, The Chronicle and Echo, is set to switch  from a daily to a weekly title.

 

 

 

BREAKING NEWS: We can confirm that we are ceasing daily circulation next month, switching to a weekly printed edition bit.ly/HC1w0S

— Northampton Chron (@ChronandEcho) April 16, 2012

It’s not the only paper to make the announcement this last week either, with job losses and protests over the last few months at titles as significant as Scarborough Evening News and the Halifax Courier.

Trustworthy

Regional news is vitally important. Surveys consistently demonstrate that readers trust local media more than any other media, and these titles are vital in keeping communities informed and united. There’s an emotional investment on behalf of the community too. A regional title is like a landmark and while I haven’t read the paper for years, living over 100 miles away, the masthead and the paper’s unmissable presence in the town centre are strong emotional hooks linking me with my childhood and friends and family still living there.

So what’s the answer? Regional titles are important but clearly not enough people are buying copies of them, but why would they when the Chronicle and Echo gives away its content for free?

Paying for content

For me this problem ties in closely with a previous post I wrote last week that argued in favour of trading data for online services; be prepared to pay, in some way, to get content. The new focus for my hometown paper seems to be a switch to digital output with an iPad app but where does this leave the older demographic that have faithfully bought the paper for decades?

A paywall perhaps that generates enough funding to maintain the daily paper? A paywall means the paper loses traffic and therefore revenue from online ads and citizen journalism is enjoying a renaissance.

Increase the cover price? No doubt the publisher, Johnston Press, has considered this and couldn’t justify it.

Trouble ahead

Regional press is continuing to go through a tough time and with job losses continuing unabated my biggest fear is for the community; syndicated news sites and the nationals don’t care about one of the country’s ugliest buildings getting a renovation but I guarantee every single Northampton resident (cobblers) cares passionately about the future of Greyfriars bus station. But with the status quo as it it is, how much longer will the community be able to find out about it?

Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1 billion on Monday and my twitter feed was immediately filled with tweets declaring disgust, anger and deep regret that the photo app should have ‘sold-out’ to the social network juggernaut.

Anger

For many the anger was rooted in Facebook’s precedent for buying up exciting and innovative apps only to take the team inhouse but dispense with the app altogether (see Gowalla).

For others, and this is what I’ve always found frustrating, the problem is the idea that Facebook is a ‘nasty’ network because it uses users’ data to monetise its services therefore users were deleting their Instagram accounts. This will no doubt upset many people, but i’m over the moon that this happens.

Our data is valuable and to continue to get access to free services we should be willing to trade on it.

It all started with Clubcard

Facebook is by no means the first to use data to make money while providing users a service. It all started with Tesco Clubcard. A revolutionary idea that has changed supermarkets, and commerce for ever.

I am not a heavy Facebook user, but I still have hundreds of photos on the site, endless messages, and videos. I have created dozens of events and groups, sent thousands of instant messages and direct messages as well as posts, pokes (in the early days) and kept in touch with my nearest and dearest for well over six years. Should I expect all this hosting and functionality for free?

Trading Data

It’s the same for Google. The search giant provides me with personal email, a browser, video hosting and video calling  alongside a dozen other services free of charge, at the very least I should allow them to use my data to help pay for it all.

I’m happy for my cookies to be tracked, Google earns money, I get free services; for my search terms to be monitored, Google earns money I get free products; for my video category preferences to be remembered, Google earns money, I get to turn my mum into a cat when chatting to her on Google+.

Let me know in the comments below if you think i’m wrong. Should we be more guarded with our data? Is there a better way to monetize these services that protects our data?

I watched Kony 2012 over the weekend. The video posted on YouTube by US advocacy group Invisible Children, had been shared by many a friend on my Facebook wall during the past week, telling me to ‘just watch it’, so I did just that.

Fascinating piece of propaganda it is too. If you are not one of the 80 million + who has already viewed the 30 min long film on You Tube, here’s a brief synopsis:

Jason Russell visited Uganda 10 years ago and ever since has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of the LRA- a rebel group led by Joseph Kony responsible for the abduction of thousands of children to build his guerrilla army in central Africa. After setting up Invisible Children, Russell’s efforts were eventually acknowledged by the U.S. government who agreed to deploy special forces to support the Ugandan army in efforts to track down Kony so that he can be brought to justice. ‘Kony 2012’ was created in Russell’s own words to “make Kony famous”, citing that as long as people know who Joseph Kony is, the US will continue their military support in central Africa until he is found. The video says it will only be streamed for 2012.

Watching the video you are encouraged to make donations to the cause, buy a trackable bracelet and on April 20^th take part in an activity called ‘Blanket The Night’, in which we will all wake up in the morning to find our cities plastered with images of Kony.

What’s fascinating is how the whole episode is now escalating. Jason Russell has suffered from an incredibly public nervous breakdown in the midst of all the hype/ criticism. Meanwhile, Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has gone on the PR offensive using the same social media platforms stressing that Kony is no longer in the country, bizarrely tweeting celebs including Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, inviting them to visit.

Regardless of your political view, thoughts about the creator, and opinions on the cause, it’s an extraordinary story to follow and an astonishing demonstration of the power of social media. Jason Russell has literally got the world talking- who could have predicted to what effect?

It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens on April 20^th. I’ll be honest, I’m probably not going to make a donation, nor buy a bracelet, neither will I be getting up at 3am to stick a poster up in Beech Road park. But I am now aware who Kony is. Objective achieved.

The highstreet and retail in general is going through a tough time, with high street stores and online retailers failing quicker than a celebrity marriage.

Retailers are having to work harder in terms of customer service, quality of product and audience engagement, to capture the imagination of the audience that they rely on to survive. Luxury products can’t just sit back and rely on their items, the customer needs to enjoy a unique experience to warrant the expenditure and budget items can’t just be about the price point, the market is saturated and people expect a certain level of design for their dosh.

It isn’t easy to find the next ‘new’ thing on the block for fashion where it comes to retail, but the campaign by relatively unknown shoe brand Miista has taken an existing model – tweet and the price will drop and given it a little tweak.

They are offering a bigger discount dependent on your Klout rating, (we’ll save the debate on the merits of Klout for another time) a clever way to encourage those with the highest influence online to get involved with spreading the word throughout their networks for the cost of a few pairs of shoes. The success of the campaign must have come as a shock to the technical department as the numbers to Miista crashed the site!

Will this approach work for Miista in the long run? Well, only time will tell, but if you’re looking to create noise about your brand, a hardworking, persistent press office combined with an engaging digital campaign is a good place to start.

During my time at Democracy, I’ve hit the phones to book in media visits for many different clients, from food to fashion. This week however, I got the chance to experience them for myself.

Along with the British Liver Trust, we took a trip to London to talk to health journalists about Eisberg alcohol free wine’s upcoming campaign with the charity.

Love Your Liver month is an initiative to encourage people to take two to three days off alcohol a week and to be more aware of their own liver health.

The campaign begins in January, so it was a fantastic opportunity to meet face to face with journalists, and to really engage them with the campaign. They loved our idea of a nationwide bus tour of pop up liver clinics, and even pledged, not without trepidation, to come and have their own livers tested when it hits London!

It was also good to hear the trust talk about the medical side of the initiative, reminding us how important liver health actually is, and how small lifestyle changes now can make the world of difference later on.

We had really great feedback and support for the campaign, and  before we’d even boarded the train back to Manchester, we had an email confirming coverage in the Daily Mail Femail, followed by confirmation with Women’s Own!

More importantly, we have developed relationships with key journalists, which we can work hard to maintain and convert to coverage!

So now I know; that’s what media visits are all about!

Waitrose, a symbol of middle England, has come a cropper.

Whereas their Facebook landing page welcomes you to their School of Christmas Magic; beyond this lies a furore of angry shoppers, all outraged at an incident which occurred in the Northampton branch of the store.

It seems that two shoppers had a confrontation in which one called the other’s disabled child an animal. She was then given a cup of coffee by Waitrose staff to help her calm down.  The original post read:

“I find it very sad that the management of Waitrose Northampton are incapable of apologising to a friend of mine as she was verbally abused on Friday 4th Nov because her disabled child was making a bit of a noise. The lady called her son an “animal” and her “Scum” but the management told her to leave if she wanted to call the police and then gave this dispicable woman a free coffee for her inconvenience. It is illegal to verblly abuse anyone and especially a disabled person. I am discussed and will never set foot in one of your stores until a public apology has been made to my friend and her son.”

After the account was posted on the Facebook page, the situation escalated almost instantaneously, with cries of hate crime and promises to boycott the store. A link to the page was quickly doing the rounds on Twitter, putting the spotlight not on the problems in store, but Waitrose’s poor handling of the situation online.

The main problem it transpired was that they appeared to be keeping quiet on the issue while still responding to inane comments – about the lack of eggs in store for example. And although a Waitrose spokesman claimed that they had responded to the original post, as the wall settings were set to view posts by everyone, it easily would have been buried.

Furthermore, as the page is moderated only between the hours of 9 and 5:30, obscene comments lay on the page and it was not until 1pm that they reissued a statement saying:

“Thank you for all your feedback on the incident between two customers at our Kingsthorpe branch. We work hard to ensure that everyone who shops with us has an enjoyable experience and is treated with courtesy and kindness. Obviously, in this case, there has been an incident that we are taking seriously and treating as a private matter with the families involved. We’re focusing now on investigating and resolving this as soon as possible. Thanks again.”

It’s a hard lesson to learn social media management is not a 9 to 5 job and if Waitrose can’t look after it, maybe it’s time to bring in an agency like us!

Google+, remember that? It’s still there you know, although you are statistically less likely to know it if you’re a) not male or b) not a geek. It seems mad to suggest that with over 20m users the platform is not considered a popular social network, but with Facebook’s active users amounting to 800m and counting only a deluded Googler would dare declare Google + a contender for the world’s most popular social networking site..

What I’d like to suggest though is that Google has contributed hugely to our social experience, even those of you who aren’t aware of Google+.

Something Borrowed and Something New

Quite simply for every intelligent Google + feature that seems to get good feedback from the community Facebook has rolled out something similar.

So Google has circles to allow users to decide what information they see and where it’s inherently an intelligent privacy model too. To match this Facebook rolled out various features including a Subscribe button allows you to mute certain friends without them knowing (just as putting them in a ‘ignore’ circle on Google+) . Smart lists were introduced allowing a user to see a specific subset of their friends, typical circles on Google+ have been ‘friends’, ‘co-workers’, ‘In the neighbourhood’ and ‘College friends’ and these same subsets are the default smart lists on the new Facebook profile. Importantly the privacy model has changed. Privacy settings are now inline with each post allowing you to modify exactly who you share each post with- you’ll never guess where else this exists.  Google +? Yes. The company made privacy a fundamental cornerstone of its product ( I blogged about it here), I’m delighted that Facebook reacted.

Another feature to have been borrowed is improved image settings. Given how huge sharing photos is to the community (not least to brands) it was about time the presentation received a little attention. Images are larger and displayed at a higher resolution, mimicking Google+’s brilliant work on the photo front. Alongside geeks, Google+ is beloved by the photography community.

Facebook’s blog details each feature in an insightful blog, although there’s no mention of where the inspiration lies.

Adapt and Evolve

What I hope is that Facebook continues to borrow and consequently offer an improved service. How else can they progress if there isn’t a competitor? The impending timeline switch is coming soon and once the hubbub dies down it will be a welcome feature that allows users (and eventually brands) to tell a more complete story.

The latest Google+ feature is the creative kit which allows users to apply filters to their images and ‘auto-fix’ them. With the popularity of Instagram, Hipstomatic and the new Flickr app it can’t be too far away, it’s my bet it will be introduced by Christmas.

Democracy PR is an inventive agency based on Beech Rd, Chorlton, Manchester. We were the first agency outside London to put traditional PR and social media on an equal footing, and our clients choose us because we impress them with our creativity and commitment to delivering results.

Since 2008, our client portfolio has expanded to include webuyanycar.com, Baxters, Jack Daniel’s BBQ Sauces, Halewood International, Scruffs Workwear, Black White Denim and The Rock in Bury.

Our team of ten needs some additional support – and we’re recruiting at all levels. We welcome people with different backgrounds who might want a career change away from advertising, search, design or TV production.

Jennifer O’Grady is our Founder and Managing Director. She is pleased to take full responsibility for the development of your career in PR. Jennifer promises to provide a lively working environment where you will make the best use of your strengths in our rapidly growing agency.

• Jennifer is fully aware of your need to grow as a professional.
• She will commit significant effort to help you enhance your natural PR talents.
• She knows you have the desire, tenacity and commitment to succeed in this exciting industry. It is her goal to provide you with the resources you need to gain the satisfaction of realistic personal and professional development.

To apply, please send a one page CV to jennifer@democracyPR.com. She will contact you to explain what happens next. Jennifer pays careful attention to your wishes in tailoring the role to your skills and aspirations.

Being a virgin blogger, I thought that I should stick to a subject I know about. So that would be mountain biking. I know what the guys are thinking, what…not social media? Not PR or popular culture? Well I do still listen to Radio ‘bore’ and as I keep saying to ‘those guys’ it’s good to temper their youth and enthusiasm with some age and experience!

Better get back on [the metaphorical not single] track here if blogs aren’t supposed to wax lyrical and morph into a dissertation.

So I thought I could take a look at how technology and social media has evolved my mountain biking experience. Well first off, I read a review of the trail on t’internet, then used my sat nav to get there.

Then comes the sweet bit. Updated my Facebook status, received a couple of likes and comments. On arrival checked into the visitors centre; yep you doubters in the office – I am now using Four Square. Nobody had explained to me how cool it was. Able to score points, win badges, a bit like geocaching for girl scouts.

Ah geocaching.  Whilst on my ride I was able to plant one for our client @duerrs1881. And even email my colleague from the car park what I had done and where, in fact got the co-ordinates on my BlackBerry.

And now I can post this blog via a tiny URL on Twitter, on Facebook, on Linked in.  Wish somebody had told me all about this stuff sooner! ;o) [for those of you who don’t know that’s my catchphrase in the office].

All I need to do now is upgrade the Blackberry to an iPhone and I can start using trailguru.com , will it never end…..

In fact I think it has only just begun.  Pretty good start for a once-luddite.  Still trying to decide if social media has, indeed, taken over my life.  And for my four year old son, no doubt it will be a way of life. Much like being a mother, once you have fallen in love with it, there is no going back.