Jess' Social Media

Pebble have done it again... A few months ago, I had a little rant at the Pebble folk for their lack of consideration when it comes to designing a smartwatch with ladies in mind. Their Pebble Steel wouldn’t look out of place in GQ magazine, clearly outlining their target market as a guy. Well, they seemed to have listened – I have noticed a few Facebook ads launching the all new colour range of the Mark 1 Pebble model. There’s PINK! BLUE! GREEN! It’s like an iPhone 5C on my wrist! The thing with these ads though is that they are clearly targeted at females…and really, REALLY badly… Now, ladies, I don’t know about you, but I often get ‘fed up’ with trying to find my smartphone in my handbag…it is always buried under all the money, make-up and tampons that we ALL keep in our massive purses. Wow! Pebble have a Barbie pink watch gizmo that means we will never miss a phone call or tweet from each other where we talk about going shopping, Ryan Gosling, and shoes!  

Oh, you know, just starting my own business... So today I realised it has been a while since my last blog post. I normally would do a bit of research into my next topic before writing, but today is different. For my life has changed dramatically in the last 8 months! A month ago, I left my awesome job at AMS Media Group , moved over 300 miles to the greatest city in the world: Newcastle Upon Tyne, where my fiancé and I have deep roots. When I couldn't find that 'perfect' job, I thought, why not do it yourself? SO...I am now the proud Director of Captivation Media Ltd ! It's been hard work, the set up process is a complicated one that is still not finished - I may be a good marketer for other brands, but I struggle to sell myself (not like that...) But on the whole, this is the most fun that I've had in a long, long time! I have some great allies in GNT Media who let me have a desk in their office and use their bandwidth; I have a super supportive fam

Last year, I became one of the self-named 'early adopters' who jumped on a bandwagon that was going at full speed - I ordered a Pebble watch. I had a choice of colours - white, grey, red, orange and black; I chose grey as my female fashion mind said 'grey will go with anything and white will get too dirty'. Because Pebble was THE buzz, as was Kickstarter, I had to wait three months for the watch to arrive. Lo and behold it did and I was SUPER excited. For those that don't know, the Pebble watch is one of the first smartwatches with actual usability - by connecting via bluetooth to your iPhone and Android through a smartphone app. It uses ePaper techology meaning the battery lasts a good few days and doesn't take long to charge. From there, it accesses your notifications, and any you have set to alert, will appear on your watch. Not only that, you can control your music, answer calls, and develop and download watch apps (I particularly like Snake). The Run

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