The engaged web is organic and fluid, meaning that it changes rapidly.  What was a positive comment can turn into a negative one within minutes and the social community expects rapid response.

Take the below as an example of just how quickly things can change.

During the recent UK election, the Labour party released this campaign poster depicting David Cameron as the Ashes to Ashes character DCI Jean Hunt with the following tagline.

Less than 24hrs later, the Conservatives had turned it round with the following alternative tagline.

Note the quip “idea kindly donated by the Labour Party”.

Organisations which spot things early and have the ability to respond quickly and effectively will gain significant competitive advantage.

The days of rear view mirror reporting are gone.  Receiving a quarterly evaluation report, no matter how pretty and intelligently assembled it is, has limited value in today’s connected world because it will be too late to do anything about the information contained in the report by the time you receive it.

There are some really good examples of how some companies have lost out due to the speed of their response.  Earlier this year, a freelance Paperchase illustrator who created the Hidden Eloise character, noticed that some of her work was being used without her permission.  Having attempted, without success, to contact Paperchase, to ask for royalties or to issue a desist notice, she began tweeting about the incident.  This resulted in coverage in The Independent and the Channel 4 News.  This done untold damage to the image of Paperchase right before one of the busiest times of the year, Valentine’s day.Read the article in The Independent here.

Consider on the other hand, Sony Playstation’s agility in handling its console woes earlier this year.  Some consumers were left unable to use their Playstation 3 consoles after their systems mistakenly calculated that 2010 was a leap year.  Bloggers were the first to identify this issue and while Tokyo investigated it, they put up holding statements as well as the eventual solution to the problem on Twitter.  Although they certainly experienced reputational damage, it could have been much worse than it was, all but for the speed and methodology of Sony’s reaction.

Real time ‘v’ right time analytics

The ability to have good digital listening posts that allow us to see true meaning when it most empowers good decision making, means we need to be able to analyse information in real time but we need to get the full picture at the right time.  If we don’t, we run a real risk of knee jerk reaction tactics.  You wouldn’t want to alter the corporate strategy in reaction to a Twitter storm which was later to prove inconsequential.

Staying with the games console industry as an example, if say Nintendo were to spot some negative comments around the pricing of one of its systems, it may be inclined to reduce its pricing.  However, if it notices that there is an overall pressure on pricing throughout the industry, including its competitors, its reaction is likely to be very different.  Hundreds of millions of pounds are likely to be at stake on these kinds of business decisions.

The measurement industry is therefore evolving from a ‘what has happened’ industry to a ‘why it has happened’ industry, but there remain some real challenges.  In part three in my Engaged Web series, I outline just what these challenges are.

Sam

I delivered a presentation entitled ‘How to measure the “Engaged Web” to gain competitive business advantage,’ at last week’s Marketing Week Live event.  For those of you who were unable to attend, I thought I’d share this presentation with you via a series of posts on our blog. This is the first installment.

The Engaged Web is a term I coined back in April during a talk at Internet World.  I prefer to use it to describe today’s media landscape.  Why? Because I don’t like the term social media which I consider to already be a bit of an anachronism. I believe that organisations have to stop thinking about social media as something new and separate from their current web activities because everything is now social. It’s just what the web is.

So, what does the engaged web look like?

The engaged web looks much like the microscopic view of cells in the diagram below. Unlike the old world which was structured and block like with clearly defined media channels, the engaged web is organic and fluid.

The organisation sits at the centre of the engaged web, surrounded by a landscape of influencers which is constantly changing and interconnecting.  This fluid world consists of traditional old media (newspapers, magazines, tv etc) and the new giants Facebook, YouTube, Twitter et al.

Each of these channels has the ability to interconnect with each other i.e. a story can break on a blog, hit the news stands and then find itself on the evening TV news.

So what does this mean for businesses?

It means that our world has become both larger and smaller.  Larger, because the sheer volume of people able to influence our brand has increased exponentially. Smaller, because the speed and the reach of the internet removes geographical boundaries and constraints.

The engaged web also has the ability to touch all functions of a business; PR marketing, customer service and sales are the obvious choices but product development and HR can also be influenced.  Development teams have rapid exposure and market insight into the minds and expectations of their audiences.

Similarly, a company’s ability to recruit may be hampered by candidate’s exposure to negative postings about their working environment or practices.

Still think that the engaged web is something you don’t have to worry about?

Consider these three recent facts

1. A recent report from Morgan Stanley says that the time people spend on social media has now surpassed that spent on email
2. Facebook has over 400m users, each spending an average 55mins per day on the network
3. Recent research from Gigur has found that social media sites are driving more traffic to sites like ESPN and CNN than Google

People are empowered by online communities which give them a share of voice.  No business can afford not to know what’s being said about their brand.  It’s no coincidence that in 2009, the number of companies looking for “buzz monitoring” tools rose from 21% to 40%.

The engaged web demands complete transparency and visibility by removing barriers which some companies may have used previously to silence critics or hide mistakes.

Since World Cup fever took hold of the Glide office last week (dream teams have been chosen, sweepstake bets have been placed and the plasma screen has been wheeled into reception) we’ve been wondering how the work forces of the UK will be taking in the games being played during the 9-5.  So, we decided to use our market research tool, GlideInsight to tap into the psyche of the football loving 9-5’ers in the UK, Germany and France to find out who’d be playing by the rules and who would be bending them slightly.  We received over 3000 responses within 24 hours, find out the results below.

The majority of UK respondents (23.55%)* said that their place of work would be “showing the games in the office”.  For those not so fortunate, the old “working from home” line was being wheeled out by 19.20% of you with the other popular options included “on the radio at work” (18.11%) and “online at work” (14.49%) so look out for your office internet slowing down a certain points throughout the day.

The most popular disingenuous option for the UK was to “take a sick day”.  However, only 5.43% of our respondents opted for this.  It would seem that the companies who will allow their workers to watch the games during working hours will benefit most.

We asked our panels in France & Germany the same questions.  In France, watching “online at work” was the number one response at 28.44% “showing the games in the office” coming in at number four with 11.93% a lot of faith in Domenech’s troops it would seem).  In Germany, listening to games “on the radio at work” is the favoured option at 26.58% with “showing the games in the office” coming in at number 3 with 15.82%.

The answers from each region are ranked below.

France

1.    online at work
2.    on the radio at work
3.    working from home
4.    work are showing them
5.    holiday time
6.    meetings
7.    parental leave
8.    sick time

Germany

1.    on the radio at work
2.    online at work
3.    work are showing them
4.    working from home
5.    holiday time
6.    parental leave
7.    meetings
8.    sick time

UK

1.    work are showing them
2.    working from home
3.    on the radio at work
4.    online at work
5.    holiday time
6.    sick time
7.    meetings
8.    parental leave

*We surveyed 3020 people for this research; 1009 from the UK, 1005 from Germany and 1006 from France.  The results have been extrapolated from the 1727 respondents who liked football.  All results were returned within 24 hours.

The first battle of the technologies I remember was Betamax ‘v’ VHS (only just I might add, actually, it was more the old top loader I remember) and having witnessed Blu-Ray win the battle over HD DVD format, are we about to witness another head to head with HTML 5 and Flash.

This time, in the HTML5 corner we have technology behemoths Apple and Microsoft and in the Flash corner, we have software provider and owner of Flash technology, Adobe.

Now, those of you who own an iPhone, iTouch or iPad (jealous) will know that Flash is not supported by any Apple device.  To add to Adobe’s woes, Microsoft’s latest edition of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) has been built to support HTML5 video playback in H.264 (or MEG-4), rather than flash.  Take a look at this to see IE9 HTML5 video playback in action – jump to around the 26 minute mark.

In a letter addressing the Flash issue, Apple’s Steve Jobs discusses the history between the two companies and the main reasons why Apple has chosen the HTML5 route as opposed to Flash.

Firstly, he takes a pop at the “openness”, reliability, security and performance of Flash, stating that it’s the number one reason Mac’s crash (ouch).  He also mentions the fact that Flash has not performed well on “any” mobile devices and that they’ve been waiting on Adobe to deliver a Smartphone ready version since the beginning of 2009 (double ouch).

So that’s Apple’s stance.  What about the rest of the web?

Now, as with all new standards, questions arise around adoption.  Jobs touches on this too, taking a pop at Adobe’s claim that 75% of video on the web is in Flash.  Jobs’ retort? Almost all of that 75% is available in another format (H.264) which is also HD ready.

So if so much Flash content is available in another format, how much of that 75% Jobs mentioned has adopted the new format?  According to encoding.com, a massive 66%.  Based on that stat, I think Adobe might be fighting a loosing battle as it would seem the choice has already been taken out of their hands.

That stat coupled with the fact that Microsoft’s IE9 will only support H.264 video surely has to be the final nail in the coffin of a format which was produced for yesteryear and continually fails to impress on the Smartphone’s of the future.

Jobs makes an interesting concluding point – “Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice… But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.”

Emma

So,  after our first round of research showed that there was quite some work for the various parties and their leaders to do to win over the undecided voting public, we decided to ask who came out on top after the first UK televised election debate.

As the post debate polls suggested, it seems that Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg had the most success in swaying the undecided. Unsurprising I thought as he seemingly did everything out of the guide to public speaking – looking directly down the camera, remembering the names of those who asked a question and by separating himself from the other main parties, he gave the public a reason to remember him by.

Back to the results.  Looking at the research we ran on the 13^th of April, the Liberal Democrats have increased their popularity among potential voters by  10.2%.  On the other hand,  Labour’s popularity has decreased 3.35% (I thought that it would have been much higher) with the popularity of the Conservatives decreasing by 4.83%.

However, it would seem that neither leader did quite enough to sway the majority of the voters as the undecided only dropped by a measly 1.8%.

So, there’s still work to be done as the next round of televised debating approaches.  Stay tuned to find out who will win the battle of ‘the undecided’.

Alex

Every time we pick up a paper from now until the 6th May we’ll be bombarded by images of politicians /smiling/holding babies/waving enthusiastically and generally doing everything in their power to persuade us that they are the right person for the job.

As the use of the internet and social media in particular is providing the parties with new ways to reach the voting public (think Barack Obama’s all conquering campaign team – is he the first social media president?), it’s hard to believe that everyone is talking about a possible hung parliament for the 1st time since 1974.

Maybe that’s because some people in the UK are still getting this hideously wrong.  Either that or someone forgot to send the ‘How To’ memo to Stuart MacLennan.

This interesting little tool was passed round the office last week .  A great attempt by a not for profit organisation aimed at helping you cut through the spin and get straight to the policies.

However, it would seem that the first round of campaigning has done little to sway the mood of the voting public as the results from our own research showed.

We asked 1,000 people who they were going to vote for in the coming election. A massive 27.16% of people were still undecided, with 32.77% of that percentage being females compared to only 19.02% of males. There are also considerably more undecided’s in the 16-54 age bracket compared with those in the 55+ age bracket.

As the first unveiling of party manifestos gets underway and the PR and marketing strategies of the parties go in to over drive, it’ll be interesting to see who is the most successful in swaying ‘the undecided’.

We’ll run this poll again after the historical election TV debate to see who, if any, has managed to win over the undecided majority.

Alex

Taking a break from our regular thoughts and musings on the goings on in the digital world, I’m delighted to announce that the Glide family has grown this week.  Shona, Tom and Alistair all welcomed new additions to their families this week – a first for Shona and Tom and a second for Alistair.

That just leaves Terri….come on baby Watts!

Emma

The decision by the Italian courts to convict Google employees (both past and present) of privacy violation is truly baffling and somewhat concerning.

The case in question concerns a video made by a group of Italian students, which shows them being physically and verbally abusive to a fellow classmate who suffers from Downs’ Syndrome.

In the eyes of the Italian courts “Google broke Italian privacy law by not seeking the consent of all the parties involved before allowing it to go online.”

By pressing ahead with this conviction, is the Italian justice system suggesting that each piece of video content published to the internet, by both individuals and service providers, be pre-screened before publication?  This is surely an impossible task which would seriously alter the web as we know it.

What’s more, to suggest that the publisher, rather than the producers (the true criminals) can hardly be viewed as justice.  The old adage “don’t shoot the messenger” springs to mind.

Lest we not forget that the actual perpetrators of the crime were suspended from their school and sentenced to community service based on the information Google was able to supply the Italian authorities.

Richard Thomas, the UK’s former information commissioner hit it on the head when he said “It is like prosecuting the post office for hate mail that is sent in the post.”

The concerning issue is the wider ramifications which this ruling brings.  The suggestion being made by the Italian authorities is that service providers (such as us) can be held accountable for content published by their users.

So, are the Italian authorities (not renowned for their own credibility some might say) trying to send a message out to the online world?  Should Google have reacted more quickly (it was apparently the most watch clip at one point and resided on the site for two months). What will be the wider ramifications for video/content sharing on the World Wide Web.  Answers to this post below please*.

Emma

*by submitting a comment to this blog, you hereby absolve us of any legal responsibly for your content!

2009 was, as they say, the year in which Twitter exploded.  Celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Ashton Kutcher became fervent Twitter users –  the former of which was accused of having a twitter wobble when he threatened to quit the micro-blogging site after some declared his tweets ‘boring’.

Searches for the site peaked in December 09 after “The Iranian Cyber Army” hacked the site, briefly taking control and redirecting users to their site.

My Twitter revolution began on 11th February 2009.  I had absolutely no idea what it was or why I needed to use it (and to some extent I still don’t). So why did I join? Because if you want to be an early adopter, you’ve got to keep with the times (even if you don’t quite know what the times are).

For the first few months I barely visited the site, with my early ‘tweets’ consisting of updates from my mapmyrun.com feed. Then July rolled around, I graduated and reality dawned “how am I going to find a job?”

What if I made use of all those targeting skills I learned at University and used Twitter to help me find a job? Although that didn’t actually lead me here to Glide, it did give me a valuable insight into how to ‘tweet’ effectively.

What tweet category are you?

A US based marketing research firm called Pear Analytics analysed 2,000 tweets and identified six categories:

1.    News
2.    Spam
3.    Self-Promotion
4.    Pointless babble
5.    Conversational
6.    Pass-along value

The study found that pointless babble (or social grooming as social networking researcher Danah Boyd referred to it) was by far the most popular type of tweet accounting for 40% of all tweets.  But as the category name suggests, it’s not ideal if you’re trying to engage with your audience.

What should you tweet about then?

People like sites like Twitter for real-time news updates.  Take the story of six year old Falcon Heene (the boy from the US who was alleged to have floated away in a homemade weather balloon) who was dubbed ‘balloon boy’ by the social media world.

They also like to promote issues they believe in and protest against those they don’t. For example, every Saturday night for the duration of the X Factor live shows the contestants and the show title were trending topics on Twitter as was the successful Rage Against the Machine campaign for Christmas number one.

People also love the spontaneity of Twitter – think impromptu gatherings like moon walking at Liverpool St station after MJ’s death.

People also like tweets that include interesting content such as music, websites, pictures and videos.

Engage with your audience in the right way and Twitter can be a great promotional tool.  Do it wrong and you risk being classed as a ‘spammer’.

So how can you use Twitter for PR (if you’re not already)?

Think carefully about your strategy.  Take time to understand what (if anything) is being said about you.  Listen to conversations and decide on the best strategy for engagement.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Post interesting stories with “retweet value” to spread the word and get you noticed
• Tweet snippets of your releases that contain a link to the full release
• Interact with your customers and clients on a more personal level, listen to what they say and engage in a      meaningful way
• Target journalists, experts in your field and even consumers using the @username function
• Use the search and follow tools to monitor how consumers feel about your brand, your area and your competitors
• Use this great application by Edelman to measure how “important” you are on Twitter

Kate

The UK is now formally, if not convincingly, out of recession. But does modest growth at the end of 2009 bode well for the immediate and long-term future? Perhaps more importantly, as the man or woman in the street plays such a key role in translating any feel-good factor into parting with cold hard cash – or credit – how optimistic do they feel? Using GlideInsight, we asked 1018 respondents from a range of ages, incomes and geographical areas across the UK to find out.

Analysts can’t agree on whether the UK economy is due to take another nose dive before it picks up again (the so-called ‘double dip’). Are our panel equally undecided? Well, no.

Overwhelmingly, the mood is pessimistic with nearly three-quarters predicting a further downturn ahead of any improvement. Most optimistic in outlook are the Midlands and Wales, with Scotland and the South and North of England taking a far more cautious line. Annual income appears to play little part in overall perception, with around 75% of all income groupings up to £80,000 per year predicting a double dip.

So far, so potentially depressing. But looking longer-term, where do our panel of respondents see the UK economy by the end of 2010? Continuing the trend, little more than one in ten see the country’s finances ending the year in a position of strong growth, though interestingly only 16% predict a descent back into recession in the next 11 months. The remaining 72% forecast weaker growth, which may be as optimistic as can be hoped in the present climate.

By region, respondents in Scotland and the North of England are nearly three times as likely to predict further recession rather than strong growth.

The Midlands, Wales and the South of England display more polarised tendencies with roughly equal numbers of respondents forecasting either strong growth or further recession in each geographical area. The 16 to 34 year old age group is split between cautious optimism and outright pessimism, with older respondents adopting a progressively gloomier stance.

Regardless of perceptions, it is clear that the political parties need to do more to engage large sections of the populace in the general dialogue.

One in four of the 16 to 34 age group is planning not to vote in the forthcoming General Election. Panel members from the Midlands and Wales display similar levels of apathy. And with more respondents across the board falling into the ‘Don’t Know’ category than expressing an allegiance to any one political party, expect the landscape to change frequently in the run up to Election Day. It’s still all to play for.

Jamie