From the so called “most depressing day of the year” to Inauguration overload in one day.

I’ve read “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama and it did make me really optimistic about the years ahead… the wave of sentiment growing in Americe, could be seen as a real turning point in the fortunes of the world when we look back at this day in history.

Something that I’ve been pondering, and I apologise for going slightly off tangent today… the downturn was largely fueled (and caused) by the markets acting irresponsibly, the continued slump seems mostyl that they still don’t trust each other and that as this continues it becomes a spiral.

What if the recovery did not come from the markets?

What would the world look like if in a month or two’s time Obama sentiment is still running high?

Could their economy start recovering off the back of consumer sentiment?

There has been some commentary that the markets haven’t reacted to Obama because they fear some of his initiatives will harm their profit taking… does that mean the economy of America as a whole couldn’t recover despite the markets?

I don’t know, but I’m ever the optomist in some respects.

Your thoughts please on my “Springer’s final thought” – Does the UK need an Obama-like figure?

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This weekend, I heard the sad new of Tony Hart passing away via twitter first.

Image from B3ta

In the last few months news and eye witness accounts (and photos) of major events are often coming first from Twitter – the viral nature of the RT (retweet) phenomenon meaning that a story goes viral in seconds, after an initial tweet from an eye witness…

The BBC talks about the coming of age of twitter, through recent event in Mumbai and of course the incredibly skilful ditching of an aeroplane into the Hudson river…

Outside of news, how does this speed affect YOU as a business?

Anything can go viral very quickly, regardless of accuracy, are you prepared?

At talks I give, I often start with a quick survey…

1) How many of you use some form of the social web/networking personally? (Facebook, myspace, linkedin, bebo, twitter…)

2) How many of you have a strategy for the social web in your business?

At a recent talk of around 40 business leaders, about 35 raised their hand for question 1 and about 3 for question 2.

It always seems to work in waking people up to what I have to say about the power and opportunity of the network.

Being engaged with the changing way people use the internet, having channels open to spot threats and opportunities makes for a more agile and successful business.

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Thanks and hello to everyone who turned up for the first startup-meetup @ blend coffee shop in Christchurch.  You never really know who’s going to turn up or what’ll happen at these kind of events, I was pleased that we had a good turn out and that all involved seem to take something good away.

We’re using the twitter hashtag #supmup, here’s some of the comments from those who attended:

adammills:Just got back from Startup Meetup #supmup at Blend Christchurch running third Thursday of every month at 10am. Really useful networking.

First_Exact:Enjoyed #supmup this morning and ended up meeting a great new contact whose skills slot into a gap in my design and dev portfolio

simonmelaniphy:Enjoyed #supmup Dorset meet this morning – good to expand my local network with some interesting digital peeps

markng:finished up at #supmup – drove from wales this morning. Met some interesting people, and had some good conversations.

janineb:#supmup Bomo Startup Meetup underway and loads of interesting people talking about their projects and opportunities to make money!

I’d like to see more “show n tell” type stuff at the next one, I know there were a few people who through injury (Get well soon) or server failure couldn’t attend.

Personally, I’ve set myself the challenge to demo something at the next one… what will it be? Watch this space… See you on 19th Feb!

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We’re giving away 3 TOP TIPS exclusive to the site, just for you… follow these 3 grrrrrreat ways to fail in social media and we GUARANTEE your business will suffer… so what you waiting for? Read on…

1) Create sock puppets – Copy the example of Cllr ben Grower , caught out today for creating an anonymous username to post comments on the Daily Echo website and then using this account to praise himself and fellow councillors.

Special deals on reduced honesty – whip up your very own social media storm by getting caught out, what are you waiting for?

(Ed: Not only was he caught because he used an email address with his name in it (duuuh), he then denied he was involved – his dishonesty is really quite shocking.)

2) Place you fingers in your ears and sceam “la la la la la” – A sure fire way of failing to market yourself and your business online is not to listen.

Follow the lead of industry giants like Sony, ignore the build up of sentiment by just sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming… you’ll feel grrrreat and if you’re really lucky and you continue doing this long enough, you too could have a class action law suit!

3) Boast boast boast! Want to be the envy of everyone? Don’t bother actually being the best, just tell everyone you’re the best… boasting, worked great for Matt Bacak.

(Ed: actually he has got a lot of press…)

But wait… we’ll throw in one more bonus never-fails to fail tidbit for FREE, yes FREE

4) SPAM SPAM SPAM – Don’t bother engaging with your audience, just shout at them enough – never fails to fail.

RT Media is an ethical Social Media Marketer – terms and conditions apply – things in this post may be satirical, if in doubt you should consult your nearest village idiot.

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Simply genius.

I was going to write a longer analysis of why i think this is a superb campaign, but most of it has been done very eloquently on the SEO Optimise blog.

Compare the meerkat works as a campaign for one key reason, it sets them apart from what has become a very competitive sector where the offering and price (ie free) is essentially the same for everyone.

How else would you compete in this market? Superior offering, better customer usability/feedback or huge market awareness?

A simple clever play on words, with a good social media marketing strategy (facebook fan page, twitter etc) and a simple mock website equals brand recognition though the roof.

The only thing I would of done differently would be to make it possible to link to specific meerkats on the site, if you find one that amuses you, all you can share with friends is the options that you chose to find that meerkat – people like to share the specifics too.

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