Social gaming’s the next online fad

http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2009/10/social-games-to-change-the-world/

Now that social networking has lost its sheen, and it’s bedding down where it’s useful while disappearing where it’s not, the next rush of enthusiasm will be about social gaming.

While social gaming will be a lot of fun for some, it’ll have limited use for corpcomms, better fitted to advertising and marketing (if you make a distinction between corpcomms and marketing, that is).

It’s not the future of content but it is content nonetheless, and will be part of tomorrow’s standard content offerings, so try it out and get used to it.

Edelman digital trends series

Edelman’s Steve Rubel is publishing a series of  ‘insights‘ into digital trends.

I’ve read the first one (17 Feb, pdf 2mb) and it’s a pretty good overview.

How to write rules for forums

Take a lesson from CBS’s Rules of Engagement by Michael Rossellini.

Here’s an excerpt:

“…no libel, slander, no lying, no fabricating, no swearing at all, no words that teenagers use a lot that some people think aren’t swearing but we do, no insulting groups or individuals, no ethnic slurs and/or epithets, no religious bigotry, no threats of any kind, no bathroom humor, no comparing anyone to Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot. We expect heated, robust debate, but comments should be polite and civil. We consider this to be public space so behave and write accordingly.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/20/utility/main959709.shtml

Leo Burnett’s website

Leo Burnett’s website has gone for a different approach (I don’t know when, but I just came across it):

1. It’s all about Flash

2. Frames are back

3. It talks a lot

4. The navigation is like catching a cat

5. It’s disturbing to be followed around by a pencil

www.leoburnett.com

None of the devices are new and there’s a reason Leo Burnett’s alone in their choice of design and devices.

Seems like ‘marketing’ just can’t get over Flash.

Sigh.

Web analytics nerds are people too

So there I am, reading Web Analytics Demystified while travelling on a bus towards the City first thing on a very dull, Baltic-cold morning, getting a little bored of conversion calculations and such like.

I’m about to close the book and grab some zees when I see the section  detailing how useful analytics tools can be in measuring search success ratios.

Riveting stuff. Not.

Social networking backlash offishul now mainstream press confirms it, innit

There’s the Register’s story: Facebook in goldmine potential deficit (29 Dec)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/29/social_networking_deloitte/

And the FT’s: Tories fail to connect on network sites (28 Dec)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/565a229e-d395-11dd-989e-000077b07658.html

And The Guardian’s:  Freezing cold, no internet, boring: it’s a French web 2.0 …(10 Dec)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/10/startups-internet

Think we can pack up this blog then…

More about blogs

The BBC has an editorial strand called City Diaries, in the business section (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7788608.stm).

Are these blogs? Are they user generated content? Are they vox pops? Are they amateur journalism?

Blogs: interesting stuff

Links to essays, blogs and a book about blogging

The Internet, mobile phones and blogging. How new media are transforming traditional journalism (PDF). Rena Kim Bivens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow media group. (Currently posted on Glasgow University Media Group’s homepage.)

Agenda of the Corporate Blog, by Todd Defren on PR Squared (Dec 10).

Also see Institute of Network Cultures.

Content strategist: definition

A List Apart has an interesting blog defining content professionals.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/contenttiousstrategy

Also see Skillset’s definitions of content professionals, starting with content strategist at http://www.skillset.org/interactive/careers/profiles/article_4746_1.asp.

Traffic — the tools and the tasks

WebTrends, Google Analytics, HBX — which one’s best?

It’s always a pain for corpcomms web teams to decide which one to choose. Not least because whenever you read books about this stuff (or go to courses) they’re inevitably geared towards e-commerce sites.

Corpcomms webteams have to use their imaginations (not a bad thing) to figure out some way of taking action based on the information from metrics.

So what if there are a million visits to the site every year. So what if the bounce rate is high. So what if the unique visitor traffic is going up.