Is McKinsey and Nielsen’s social media division a backwards step?
I saw this story earlier in the week and now Drew B's blogged about the announcement that the media metrics people Nielsen have teamed up with the management consultancy McKinsey to launch a social...
View ArticleActivism, Clicktivism and the limits of social media in achieving social change
Last month, Malcolm Gladwell published a piece in The New Yorker arguing that social media was preventing real social change taking place by encouraging what he termed 'clicktivism' – a form of...
View Article#ukriots and the limits of traditional media (and what it means for democracy)
This post started out as a few immediate thoughts about the way the #ukriots played out across the media. By the time I'd got around to tidying up what I'd written it'd been superceded by a wealth of...
View ArticleSpeaking at ‘Insight 2.0: The Future of Social Media Analysis’
I’ve been busy of late working on a few different projects (more of that soon) and wanted to share some information about a really interesting (and much needed, imho) conference. The one-day event,...
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Anarchism and social technology: conference panel
I’m going to be facilitating a panel on anarchism and social technology at this year’s Anarchist Studies Network conference in Loughborough next week. You can read the abstracts below. View this...
View ArticleTowards a general “internet theory”
I’ve just picked up Geert Lovink‘s latest book-length contribution to the debate on social media and theory, Networks Without A Cause: A Critique of Social Media. It’s extremely prescient and chimes...
View ArticleSocial media helping PR operate more strategically?
The Chartered Institute of PR’s (CIPR) annual State of the Profession report suggests a potentially interesting development for the sector and the role PR plays within organisations. In her...
View ArticlePR & paid media: a new reality?
A number of smart PR agencies seem to be setting up new paid media divisions of late. First, Edelman announced its hire of Cassell Kroll as vice president, media strategy operating out of the firm’s...
View ArticleDigital innovation: some reading
Serendipitously I stumbled across a couple of great articles about digital innovation in the advertising space recently which dovetail neatly with some of the thinking and writing I’ve been doing....
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PR can’t respond to ‘structural’ challenges of social media. Discuss.
So. Here’s a thought. My old boss and friend, Robin Grant, told PRWeek last year that PR had missed the boat on digital. The reality, of course, is much more nuanced than that but there is a definite...
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Infographic: A History of Social Media
Chris from Prohibition PR has put together this handy infographic providing a history of social media and outlines some of the big game-changing moments in this blog post. It contains some surprises –...
View ArticleCIPR Social Media Panel: Guide to Paid Media
As a member of the CIPR’s Social Media Advisory Panel I spent a fun afternoon last Wednesday taking part in a ‘PR Hackday’ on the subject of paid media. It was a good session with lots of productive...
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New chapter out on text-mining and digital research
A chapter I co-authored on text-mining has (finally!) been published in the Sage publication, Innovations in Digital Research Methods. Co-authored with Lawrence Ampofo, Ben O’Loughlin and Andrew...
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