Facebook Connect in 140 Slides

Tag Archives: Facebook

Facebook and News – is it that Important?

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An interesting debate is rumbling about Facebook and its role in news. Some voices are evangelical about the social network, while others doubt why news organisations are putting Facebook at the heart of their digital strategy.

Earlier this week, Techcrunch recently criticised US news agency Associated Press (AP) for diverting Twitter users to their Facebook page. The blog couldn’t comprehend why AP would want to drive traffic to Facebook and not to their home page.

Of course, you need to understand this story in the context of TechCrunch’s on going dispute with AP. The two parties are not the best of friends.

To the common onlooker, diverting their users to Facebook and not your home page, does seem a little odd. On the other hand, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Social media, Steve Rubel, thinks that Facebook could soon “swallow the internet!” There is data to show that Facebook is now the number one source of news on the internet, greater than Google News.

Facebook news traffic

He sees a day when there could be a “siteless” internet and thinks AP’s move is ‘visionary.’

In the short term, it is the role of the Public Relations professional to decide how best to integrate social media, such as Facebook into PR campaigns. While Facebook is a great tool for brands, using it to make news sharable can be seen as more difficult than using Twitter, Digg, Reddit or other such sites.

However, in the future as more and more realtime services are integrated into Facebook, the changes Steve Rubel talks about could become a reality.

Or, of course, a new unexpected technology might come along and change things again! Nothing in the world of web 2.0 happens as expected. However, it is worth keeping an eye on Facebook – it is not just a place to update your friends on what you had for lunch.

Interesting further reading:

You can create your own personal news channel in Facebook. I still prefer Twitter, but it is possible and people are using it

Slowly and surely Facebook is adding to its news functionality, such as this social search tool

How else is Facebook spreading news? The Daily Perfect is a classic example.

Brandon Block Anti-Drugs Message is a Win for Public Health Communications

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On the day that actress Brittany Murphy died from what reports suggest to be drug abuse, the DJ Brandon Block is fronting a new Government anti-drugs campaign. The results, I feel, are exceptional and you can watch it here.

Everyone has seen a public health campaign which takes the wrong tone or, worse still, could motivate youngsters to do the opposite – after all, adolescence is all about rebellion. The Brandon Block video should put people off cocaine and congratulations should be given to Mother, the agency behind the campaign.

The only small worry about the message is perhaps it won’t resonate that well with the young because many won’t know Brandon Block, as his career peeked at some point in the nineties. I remember him and his music ‘wasn’t to my taste,’ but he was a famous self-styled “nutter”, and hopefully the scale of his lifestyle can be put across to those under 30 years of age. Using the Pablo Facebook campaign I am sure this generational problem can be overcome.

For those of you who are under 30 and don’t remember Brandon Block, then perhaps the following video of him in action at the Brit Awards, is just as strong a message about “Just Saying No.” Looking back at the clip now, it is both funny and sad, and it is this complex picture of drugs, the highs and the lows, which this campaign gets across so well.

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