It’s that time of the year again when Social Media Week rolls into town. Now in its third year, Social Media Week offers ‘a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries.’

Of course, we at Neoco will be flexing our social muscle and sharing the knowledge with our very own event where we’ll be providing one-on-one sessions to alevialte your social media woes in our ‘Social Surgery’.

Book a session with one of the team and we’ll examine your social media symptoms, getting to the root of your social pain. We’ll endeavor to not only diagnose but also treat your ailments in the time it takes to have a muffin and a coffee

Plus as well as answering all your questions on all things web 2.0, such as what is the best social media platform for promoting my brand? What are the upcoming trends within the industry? We’ll also give patients a takeaway gift to make sure your social media strategy is on the road to recovery.

Ok enough of the sick puns, but you get the point.  In a nutshell a session will provide you with:

• 100% private one-to-one session to discuss your social media concerns
• expert advice relating to your social media problem
• Insight into how relevant, successful brands are using social media to meet their business goals

Neoco’s clinic: MADD – 53 Rupert Street, W1D 7PQ

Surgery times: Tues 14th and Thurs 16th February from 9:00am – 11:00am

Make an appointment email: surgeon@neoco.com

This event is ideal for anyone managing social channels (or in charge of someone who’s managing social channels!) but don’t feel they’re performing at their best. No issue is too big or small for us to handle so schedule an appointment with us now and get social media advice tailored to your brand; remember, it’s not psycho therapy, it’s social therapy!

Email us at surgeon@neoco.com – alternatively you can drop in during one of the sessions and we’ll try and book you in for an emergency consultation.

Internet adoption amongst children is at an all-time high; 95% of  12 to 15 year olds have internet access at home via a desktop computer and the time spent online increasing yearly up from 7 to 11 hours per week between 2004 and 2009 - it goes without saying that kids will want to be a part of the biggest online community in existence.

One million British children aged seven to 12 visit Facebook everyday, despite the social network requiring members to be aged 13 and over

While Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards commented favourably on the high figure stating “almost universal use of the internet at home by 12 to 15s – both for their education as well as their entertainment – is a positive step forward”, concerns have been raised about children and their exposure on sites including Facebook.

Too much, too young?

An Ofcom study revealed that 54% of 8 to 15 year olds and 1 in 5 10 year olds have a social networking profile on sites such as Facebook, up from 45% in 2009. This equates to the same percentage of adult users. Furthermore a study by Mintel reveals over one million British children under 12 use Facebook daily, with only 5% saying they did not use the site at all. That’s a staggering statistic for a site that requires users to be 13 to sign up.

Figures issued by Facebook state that the site closes 20,000 underage user accounts per day, a mere drop in the ocean compared to statistics found by intelligence service Neilsen who estimate 7 million underage users across the world.

These statistics are hardly surprising considering the large number of products and services children come into contact with that point to exclusive or additional content on Facebook. Whether its television programs like The X Factor or celebrities and popstars Beiber and the Kardashians, young people want to connect with their favourite stars and shows with social networks offering a gateway to get closer than ever before. What is surprising however, is not just the number of parents aware of children under 13 setting up accounts on social media sites, but the number of parents actually helping them do so.

Parental responsibility?

A recent study by Microsoft revealed that far from restricting children’s use of the site, parents are are actively helping their kids to create accounts regardless of Facebook terms which state profile accounts for children under 13, or the setting up of accounts on behalf of another person, is not allowed.

“There has been outrage about underaged children being on Facebook and as it turns out, many parents are not only okay with it — they are helping their children set up accounts” said Danah Boyd, a Microsoft researcher and co-author of Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age.

A survey from Harris Interactive randomly sampled 1007 parents aged 26 and over, with children aged 10 to 14. More than half of parents who had 12-year-olds knew they were signed up and worryingly 35% helped them.

If parents are prepared to bypass rules to allow children to sign up, albeit for their own protection, what example does this set to children about rule breaking later on in life? Whilst some parents argue that they do not want to be told how to be a good parent, others claimed they want their kids to get used to using the internet early.

They may have a point. Mark Zuckerberg made a speech at an innovation in schools summit supporting the use of Facebook for the under 13s, saying the age limit would be challenged at “some point”. Currently restricted under Children’s Online Private Protection Act (COPPA), aUS law that gives parents control over what information websites collect from children under 13, he talked of the educational benefits Facebook could bring to the young. ”My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age,” Zuckerberg said. “Because of the restrictions we haven’t even begun this learning process. If they’re lifted then we’d start to learn what works.”

Changing media consumption patterns for kids

Developments in technology and the sharp increase in digital media adoption have driven discussions in American Congress to make updates to the COPPA to cover all social networking sites and mobile apps. In the UK however, the law does not restrict users under 13-years-old from using the site, although Facebook’s terms and conditions do.

So why are so many children under 13 clamouring to sign up? So what does all this mean? Considering the rapidly rising rate of internet and mobile adoption amongst Generation Z (or iGen, referring to those born between 1997 and 2003) children are consuming more and more digital media due to increasing ease of access, just not all of it legitimately.

Children spend so much time online that the study conducted by Ofcom revealed children aged 12 to 15 would rather lose access to TV over other technology. 28% of those surveyed said the item they would miss most should they not have access to it would be their mobile, with internet at 25%, compared to only 18% citing television.

Mobile is now growing at a faster rate than the internet seeing a significant growth with children aged 8 to 11, rising from 55% a year ago to 61% in 2011. Around half of all British children aged 14 and under now have their own mobile phone and a tenth of those admitting to using Facebook everyday do so on their phones.

The answer…

The responsibility here lies with not just educating parents about the risks of allowing their children to have Facebook accounts, the ease of posting inadvertantly provocative images for all to see, but with advertisers who should uphold their ethical responsibilities.

Research found that 41% of 8 to 14 year olds surveyed use Facebook after school between 5-8pm. Not only does this pinpoint the key time for companies marketing products to the iGeneration aged 13 and over, but highlights a hotspot for parents to take additional care supervising online activity.

One solution is for only parents to know account passwords and monitor activity on Facebook at all times. Comments on ABC15’s Facebook page in response to the question “What do you think about parents that are doing this? Are children under 13 too young to be on Facebook, or is it OK as long as the privacy settings are locked down?” returned quite revealing answers, with some parents allowing children as young as 5 an account under a fake name with no images:

Whether by peer pressure to fit in amongst friends, playing games online or by sheer curiosity, it was Commodore 64 of the eighties, Tamagotchis of the nineties – children will always want to have the latest gadget. It just so happens that this particular toy is also played by adults and until we are able to break this fascination, how can we expect children not to want to join in too ?

Click here for the full Ofcom report.

As tablets and smart phones continue to grow in popularity and functionality, broadcasters and content providers are left to contemplate where they stand in this changing environment. There has been plenty of concern that the use of second (third and fourth*) screens detract from traditional TV consumption, with many channels desperate to put as much distance between their TV and social channels as possible. However with conclusive research suggesting that multi-screen use is going nowhere but up, integration could be the only way forward.

The reality is that consumers are increasingly using multiple devices to engage with numerous media channels simultaneously. It has been a long time since the entire family gathered around one screen for a shared viewing experience. In 2009 a Nielsen report officially recorded that the number of TVs per American household exceeded the number of residents. Add this to the fact the most people get their own PC in their teens and mobiles even earlier and it becomes quite apparent that this move towards multi-screen platforms has been a long time coming, tablets simply sealed the deal.

As recognised by Dan Saunders, Head of Content Services at Samsung Electronics Europe “The tablet has become the logical bridge between the smart-phone and the TV…”. Prior to tablets, the leap from smart-phones to TV was substantial. And there is a plethora of companies out there ready to take multi-screen broadcast to the next level.

ScreenToo, a second-screen platform, enables media and broadcast organisations to syncronise the distribution of branded metadata with the primary broadcast. There is now the opportunity to tailor advertising, launch viewer polls and provide character and actor info, all triggered by metadata about both the programme and programme contents. These premium interactions provide new revenue channels for media and broadcast organisations to monetise. Our own activity with sports brands and networks puts live social fan data on opinions from mobile and tablets (e.g. most likely to score next goal, final score line etc.) on the main screen broadcast.

So instead of perceiving multi-screen viewing as detraction from original channels, broadcasters need to recognise the inherent opportunity available to them. By streamlining social strategy with primary broadcast content, broadcasters have the opportunity to further enhance their users’ experience in turn strengthen their loyalty and ratings.

* TV, mobile, laptop and tablet.

A quick read of the free commuter newspaper I read yesterday morning mentioned Lufthansa complaint lines that don’t work, rude Eurostar staff, empty British Airways information desks and a general feeling of despair at BAA’s Heathrow airport. Last night as I feel asleep, BBC news informed me of a disastrous Southeastern train journey which took 6 hours to get from London to Kent and left 100 people stuck until 3am. The fact I still remember these details hours later is a sign that I will be less trusting of those brands and firms next time I may need to use them.

Passengers at Heathrow

In this day and age there is no longer any excuse for not having an information feed direct from your organisation, unless you really are involved in a government cover-up.

Websites, email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook… the list of possible contact points for many of those helpless, stranded, weather victims is now almost unbelievable, yet it seems as if the snow has paralysed not only the roads outside but also the information highway.

The funny thing is, a clear, honest, up to date online news feed could also very easily be used by those self-same evasive members of staff who never seem to know what’s going on in the organisations they work for. Can you imagine BA staff showing users how to follow the Twitter feed for all the London-New York flights, to get free SMS updates? In one fell swoop you would clear a vast chunk of constant questions while leaving staff free to help those who were not just asking the same 50 or so FAQs. Not only that, but good brand sentiment travels just as fast as bad – as BA travellers at airports, homes and offices around the world tell their peers they are being kept up to date via BA Twitter for all their enquiries. This would generate long-tail conversions to the BA brand, as next time they think of booking a ticket they would remember the good things they heard about BA last time.

It’s easy to be communicative when you have something to sell or something to crow about. But if you really want to help your customers, build relationships with them and keep them loyal, then why not try being more communicative when you have a problem?

which movie should we watch tonight?

The Sky HD Party is a fantastic mechanism for engaging their existing audience and using them as advocates to recruit new subscribers. The premise is simple:

Give an existing Sky HD subscriber a free Box Office movie and £10 M&S voucher (for eats) if they get three friends to commit to watching the movie with the subscriber.

HD owners tend to be big fans on the quality and keen advocates of the technology  since they’ve normally invested quite a bit of money in it (TV and Sky). This activity is a great way for HD owners to show off their TV set up to friends and get a free, good movie to boot. The main issue with the Sky parties though is how Sky make it so awkward for party hosts to invite their friends and that by simply hooking up customer data they would generate significantly higher conversion rates on the number of parties hosted and new subscribers from them. Let’s look at some of the mechanisms below:

1) Web: First, the host has to pick the movie

pick the movie

Then the host has to invite their friends. Simple enough but the issue here is that the only option for inviting friends is email. In today’s connected (Facebook) world, how many people know their friends emails by heart? It’s like friend’s phone numbers – most have no idea! To get a friends email address most people will need to open up their email client and then start typing their friends name to bring up the email address, copy, go back to web browser (or tab) and paste. This seems so awkward. By simply adding Facebook Connect, a host could just click a bunch of friends and message them directly. The other benefit of inviting several people through Facebook is:

1. It appears on friend’s newsfeed
2. More people can be invited at once – increasing the visibility of the event
3. Three people must confirm so, more invites equals more chance of success
4. By a friend agreeing, Sky could also gain data on the user based on their Facebook ID

2) Mobile: Sky use the iPhone a lot. They have  several Sky apps, from TV Guide and recording shows to streaming TV to News and Sport. Subscription to these apps is listed in customer account data. Sky could let hosts organise the HD party as an alert on any one of the several app. The benefit for the host is that their friends email addresses are already on their iPhone. So clicking ‘add friends’ and then just tagging people in the address book is simple and easy. It also gives Sky the data they seem to want.

Finally, Sky should be doing more with the social data. Most people are pretty open about movies the love or loathe on their social profiles. I know I’m pretty active on social channels and have used those channels to communicate the following: that I enjoyed Inception. I have two young sons. I hate Sex and the City. On this basis, Sky could easily offer me a preference on the type of movie to watch and even give me a deal to ‘buy’ the second one at a special rate. Not doing this is the easy option but definitely an opportunity (and revenue) lost.

So whilst the HD party is a good idea – and I look forward to my 3D parties – Sky are ignoring simple social CRM techniques that would increase the user experience, engagement, reach, and importantly revenue.

Couldn't find a good image to represent HTML5 so went for the 'Dramatic Gopher'

But here’s the rub. HTML5 is still under development, people are still arguing over whether there should be a space between “HTML” and “5″ or not, and any current implementations could possibly change in the future. HTML5 is expected to reach Candidate Recommendation sometime in 2012, and finally become a W3C Recommendation sometime in 2022!

Having said that many browsers are implementing lot’s of the proposed features of HTML5 such as canvas, the video element, and new semantic blocks such as <nav>, <footer> and <section>

And it is the video element we are interested in here. With the popularity of Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices, sites that use a lot of video are left with a problem. They are probably using Flash to display their video, and as you may well know Flash is not supported on these devices. HTML5 video is however.

There are a number of implementations of HTML5 video around on the web, some of the best are:
Projekktor (a free HTML5 video player) ()
Video JS (we used a version of this implemention using the Vimeo skin)
SublimeVideo by Jilion (not yet available but will be free for non-commercial use)

The problem now is that while HTML5 video is supported on The latest versions of safari/firefox/opera (and the BETA of IE9), it is not yet supported by internet explorer or older versions of those browsers. We also have the issue that the different browsers support different video formats.

I won’t go into details about the difference between video formats and containers, and which browsers support which formats (see the table on Wikipedia), suffice to say, if you wanted to support HTML5 in all available browsers, you could conceivably have to upload 4 versions of every video on your site – Ogg Theora, H.264, VP8(WebM) and Flash FLV as a fallback.

If you decide that this is the route you want to go down then Camen Design have a great post entitled Video for Everybody that you should check out. I would also recommend reading the excellent video on the web article on the Dive into HMTL5 site.

We decided on a different approach for one of our clients. We didn’t want to force them to upload 4 different files for every video on the site, and we were perfectly happy with playing video through flash on the main website. We just wanted to add support for their videos on Apple’s mobile devices, the iPhone and iPad, requiring that for every video we had a Flash FLV and an MP4 version. It was then a simple case of checking the useragent and serving the MP4 via the video element to apple mobile devices, and the flash version to everyone else.

One thing to remember is that the iPhone supports a maximum video resolution of 640×480, and videos over this size do not play (Arstechnica reckon you can get away with up to a 720×576 resolution, but i’ll leave that to you to play with)

Using this simple method we can ensure that video content is accessible for everyone viewing the site, including those using Apple’s mobile devices. And this accessibility is key for engaging audiences. With so many people using mobile devices to browse now, it’s important you capture the audience when they are interested – as chances are they will not be coming back on their PC to check out that video that didn’t load on their phone.

I popped over to Nielsen’s colourful offices for an update on the mobile market developments and a cuppa last week. The hot topic of the seminar was the rise of the smart phone and how the latest figures show that the smart phones will indeed have a majority share of the market (at least in the US) by 2011. Thanks to the throngs of creative thinkers and developers around the globe there now seems to be few limits to what we can get our mobile phones to do for us. Long-gone are the days when you would have to sit tight and wait for next year’s model to come out before you could have any additional functionality on your device…

The key user group of the smart phone is the 25-34 year olds, with Nokia being the current market leader in the UK. However, Nokia fails when it comes to engagement much due to its limited online usage. They also continiously achieve fewer downloads than for instance the iPhone. Thanks to the highly integrated and often affordable Android phones (and again the US is leading this development) we can now see how the smart phones are reaching out further into the mass market. Huawei is one example of a brand no one had heard of (at least none of my friends!) until recently – they are launching a smart phone in the UK next month, which will be available on pay-as-you-go for £100. I’m sure this mass market approach will very much influence the market for apps.

Ed Kershaw rounded of his presentation with giving a summary of what he sees as the mobile market areas to watch in 2010 and going forwards:

1.     SMS advertising being re-born

2.     Location location location (based)

3.     The smart phones goes mass market (pushed by the world cup and 2012)

I would be interested to hear whether you agree with Ed on the above? Is ‘location based’ and ‘real time’ the future of all marketing? And what is your personal take on the Nokia (reach) versus iPhone (cool) situation?

A free iPhone App offers a map of all the spots across town and an augmented view to help people find spots near them. The campaign brings London’s rich history to life through a simple experiential event.

So far so good… I obviously had to check out the website www.youarehere.com. First impressions where really disappointing and the online element just didn’t achieve the same level of engagement as the rest of the campaign. From a design perspective the ‘page’ is cluttered and content hierarchy is unclear. I was expecting a whole microsite around the campaign with more photos and content – maybe real stories from people associated with each photo. In fact it’s just a poor landing page – they may as well had not pushed the URL on all the posters as heavily. It’s a shame because there is a really big opportunity to add a further level of engagement online through user interaction and social media. I’d have liked to have seen an online platform for discussion and information exchange – helping to paint an even richer background to each of the spots and events, from local peoples knowledge.

I just wish the online element was stronger, or even just more clearly sign-posted. Don’t get me wrong the iPhone App is simple and fun, but trying to find it in the App store was difficult. Maybe I was having a stupid moment! I tried searching for ‘Museum of London’ first – nothing. Then ‘You are here’ – nothing again! Finally I realised the small print on the landing page which read “Just search for Streetmuseum on iTunes”. OK I downloaded it but this third campaign title was a little hidden and why they couldn’t highlight the App name more if it was so different (especially on the posters), or even hyperlink to the iTunes store (like I have).

Overall it’s a real shame because the thinking behind the idea is beautiful, the offline execution is done brilliantly, and the iPhone itself is good fun. In summary ‘must try harder next time’.

the Highlander battle of phones has begun - There can be ONLY one! iPhone vs Nexus; how does the Nexus fair?

Wow, everyone’s out with their review of the new Nexus handset and how it stacks up as the latest iPhone killer… So here I am to add my own review:

What a load of sh*t. A real missed opportunity for Google to move the market forwards but instead they just release a ‘me too’ product. Yeah, it looks alright but it’s no iPhone. Better camera but that’s about it. Where’s the power? Where’s the wow factor? What they needed to do was release something that made my iPhone-hugging ass think about how I could dump this crappy O2 contract and get me a sweet new Nexus. Instead it’s just another failed opportunity. Another failed launch of an iPhone killer. Everyone – including us iPhone owners – want to see an iPhone killer and set the industry and consumer wars on fire, but so far, no-one has delivered. And here we have the central problem with the mobile industry; it’s failure to deliver on promise. How long has everyone waited for Year of the Mobile… year after year since the early noughties. The iPhone finally kicked things off and now we are back to the waiting game. The only good thing about the Nexus is that it is (just) enough to keep things ticking over until the real iPhone killer gets unveiled later in the year – the iPhone 4.0/ 4G

We often get clients asking us about all these different channels and the best way to communicate across them. Good news is that we are going to start running workshops and training days to help expand the knowledge and ability of our clients and their internal teams. This is open to people on either side of the fence (client or agency side).

Are you interested in any of the following? If so, go to http://ping.fm/rSWYc and register your interest.

* Mobile Marketing – Harnessing the power and potential of media targeting
* Online Marketing – Getting to grips with the power of online marketing
* PR – Getting to grips with how online fits into the PR mix
* Audience Building – Unlocking the keys to boosting your traffic and retaining customers
* Blogging – Authoring blogs that get readers and ratings
* Community & Web 2.0 – Building effective online communities
* How the Internet works – Understanding the key components that make up the Internet
* Podcasting – Getting to grips with designing and building podcasting strategies
* Media Targeting – Harnessing the power and potential of media targeting
* Search for Advertisers – Getting more profitable customers through search
* Search for Agencies – Getting more profitable customers for your clients through search
* Email Marketing – Getting to grips with email marketing
* Viral Marketing – Creating effective viral marketing messages
* Research for Online Audience Behaviour – Understanding your customers
* Word of Mouth & Advocacy – Engaging and motivating your audience to promote your brand
* Widgets – The way to create widgets that get results and exposure
* Trends – Understanding the strategic trends driving the digital economy
* Web 2.0 – Harnessing Web 2.0 practices and technologies in your business
* Web Project Management – Running web projects to deliver on time and within budget
Go to http://ping.fm/IqnOz and register your interest.