Jess' Social Media

Last week, Facebook announced that there will be video capabilities on their owned platform Instagram.  What were the first impressions of the announcement? When Twitter launched Vine, there was a bit of a murmur amongst the creative users of social media as their juices flowed and original content starting coming in from everywhere. There was also a little bit of a controversy to do with Porn films, but any news is good for a brand right? It is grown in popularity amongst brands and users alike. I tend to not have that much creativity in me, so my Vine feed consists of running clips. The idea was a good one – the sort that works with social networks; simple, short and able to integrate with other platforms; very similar assets that Instagram had when they launched. So what have Facebook done? Well they’ve decided to jump on the video sharing wagon – the idea is very similar to Vine – a short loop that is shareable on other platforms only you have 15 seconds to play wi

Twitter and news stories are a match made in heaven. Twitter has brought a great many things into my life; insight into how the rich and famous live their lives and Instagram their lunches; I have been involved in seminars on Twitter that have educated me in my industry, giving me professional connections; I have laughed at the viral memes and retweeted my friends’ announcements.  The ultimate thing Twitter has brought though is the immediacy in which news comes.   I will admit my browser will see more of Twitter than a news page, and this is why I tend to hear about major events through the social network. A prime example of this is when I was in my Masters seminar, demonstrating Twitter on a projector when the news of the death of Alexander McQueen flashed up. We were seeing this news immediacy in true effect.  News-worthy stories There are numerous news events I can confirm of hearing about from Twitter first, and they don’t just come from the BBC Breaking News

Look, can’t you see? Music and Social Media just DON’T WORK! Three years ago, I wrote a Master’s dissertation on Social Media and Music Marketing; this discussed how independent musicians promoted themselves through social media. I truly believed (and still do) that musicians have a strong presence and advantage in social networks and it is a platform that works wonders for musicians and fans to connect and share. I provided examples of fans interacting with Jon Amor’s Facebook posts on a personal level; how Pete Wearn (my brother dearest) uses Last.fm to get his music out there. And still today, there is something speci al about following an artist you like on the networks as it brings a sense of immediacy and realism to the whole fandom. It may come as a surprise to you that I feel Twitter have made a bit of a boo boo this week by launching their #music application. #music compiles playlists for you based on who you are following on Twitter and new artists that

With The Battle of the Networks commencing as each one grows in numbers and egos – what is happening in each corner and how can brands avoid feeling like children of divorce? In the Blue Corner…Facebook The Big Daddy of the networks is soon to have a mutiny on their hands. Facebook’s stance is to improve their mobile offering and ensure they are generating income on that level. Quite a challenge, especially as they continue their development of feed algorithms. Apparently, the complex algorithm that decides whether a brand’s posts are newsfeed worthy is causing quite a bit of controversy in confliction with the Facebook promoted post. A sneaky way for Facebook to make money from promoted posts? Graph Search is also upping the ante in the game with The Big Boys as it will be using a similar template to Google in ranking pages on Facebook through engagement, popularity and whether your friends like it. A great blend of search and the Facebook USP. An additional hit in Go

Well, it certainly has been a while.... My apologies that I didn't follow through on the promise of a dissertation through the platform of blog, but by the time I would have written the first chapters, it would have been out of date already. In two years...there have been new social networks (Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ to name the biggies), controversy (Instagram, Google+, Facebook, Twitter), fallings out, the expansion of mobile, MySpace regeneration, and about a hundred Facebook layouts. Brands are adopting social media a lot differently too - it is no longer the thing they should be on to say they are 'hip' and 'with it', letting they unpaid intern who 'knows about this stuff' manage their pages; they have dedicated Community Managers who are passionate about the brands, who is in the know of the company and the brand to address any conversation that is happening on any social media platform. Since entering the world of social media on a profes