The site works by allowing you to select a topic of your choice and then search for related news articles, Tweets, Facebook posts, Flickr photos and then prompts you to drag and drop them into a multimedia story which can then be embedded into any website.

“We have so many real-time streams now, we’re all drowning,” Storify founder Burt Herman told the New York Times. “So the idea of Storify is to pick out the most important pieces, amplify them and give them context.”
The site is becoming increasingly popular in the USA with over 5,000 sites and blogs including The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR (National Public Radio) using Storify to create and share ‘stories’. With more than 13 million views accumulated over the past 4 months it seems that Storify really is the next big thing.

Fancy giving it a go? You can sign in with your twitter account and get started right away! We’d love to hear your thoughts!

You may have heard the terrible news from Mumbai last week of three bomb blasts in congested areas during the evening rush hour which killed at least 21 people and injured more than 100 others.
Nitin Sagar was following news developments on twitter from his office in New Delhi. Noticing the amount of people tweeting to offer help to victims and their families, and aware of the power that twitter has to quickly reach an incredible amount of people Sagar created a Google docs spreadsheet to act as a collective hub of contact details from those offering assistance in the hope that they could help an injured person on the street or a relative desperately searching for a loved one.
He inserted the details of five people and posted a link to twitter inviting people to add to it before he left work at 8 p.m

Just half hour later, the spreadsheet had grown to include the names of hundreds of people who wanted to donate blood, provide shelter, help transport people or help in any way possible. By the end of the night, the spreadsheet had been viewed by thousands and re-tweeted by even more. Most importantly, it had been successfully used by people who needed help.

Anirubh Sharma, a technology worker from Bangalore, saw the link on Twitter. A friend of his was killed when the Taj Mahal Palace Tower hotel came under attack in 2008. Sharma offered an airline coupon for a free ticket to anyone who needed to travel in or out of Mumbai to reach an injured friend or family member.
His soon received a call from a man who was desperately trying to reach his injured daughter.
“It’s easy to make noise,” he said. “But instead of just ranting on Facebook and Twitter, why not do something good?”

Sagar took the spreadsheet down once the need for emergency help dissipated, but has said that he plans to keep working on establishing more databases, so that if and when the need arises again, there will already be a relief database in place.
Clearly not one to bask under the ‘Good Samaritan’ banner that has been put upon him, Sagar this week tweeted: “Dear new followers gained in the wake of a truly delusional momentary Twitter glory, good luck. I am genuinely annoying on most days.”

A fantastic story that highlights the massive reach of digital communications.

The ‘Mobilise’ tool was introduced for the first time in the UK by Google’s Ian Carrington at a press conference ahead of the search engine giants Think Mobile event held in London this afternoon (Wednesday 29th June).
The service is being launched first in the UK, as opposed to the US, as the driving force for the tool came from Google’s research which showed that 24% of smartphone users in the UK are actively using their phones in-store to compare prices and specifications of products, and 28% of British smartphone users have used their phone to make a purchase.

“Mobile sites are still a barrier in mobile-commerce. We’re hoping to help businesses take advantage of this mobile opportunity with the new tool” explained Ian Carrington, Google’s mobile advertising sales director for northern and central Europe.

The tool itself provides a fantastic opportunity for SME’s to create another layer of exposure for their business. However with this easy access comes the risk of an influx of poorly constructed sites. The challenge for SME’s will be ensuring that all aspects of a communications strategy are taken into account to ensure a successfully integrated interaction with the public.

Thanks to @stuartdredge for the news!

A substantial 40% of websites tested fail to attract any visitors via PPC or search engines, meaning they have only visitors from direct traffic; only users who know the actual website address visiting them.

Despite this fact,  around one million new domain names were registered in the UK last year.

Are you aware of how many visits you receive on your website? Are you part of that 40% who get no traffic? It’s never too late and steps can be taken to improve a company’s digital pr. If you are serious about acting on this and giving your online presence a good kick to increase your website visibility and traffic get in touch.

The 2011 Mobile World Congress is now officially over.  Around the world, weary, hungover people in suits are sitting on planes, piecing together memories of the last few days and wondering what, if anything, it all meant.

For those of you who haven’t been lucky enough to attend the world’s largest mobile trade show and conference, it’s a wonderland of business, new technology, mega-deals and the occasional party.

The last couple of years were a little quiet in Barcelona, with numbers a little light and the media muttering that perhaps this mobile technology thing wasn’t actually the future after all…

The nay-sayers and doubters were silenced this year however, with record numbers of delegates, exhibitors and participants visiting the show.  Attendance was up 10,000 on last year, with 60,000 hitting the show floor (3,000 of the CEOs apparently).  1,400 companies exhibited at the show and 12,000 developers visited the ‘App Planet’ area (which was clearly a poor rip-off of Revolver’s own 2010 press release headline ‘Planet Of The Apps’).

Outside the numbers, MCW remains the place where the majority of the major players – manufacturers, networks, developers, publishers and people who make components for radio towers, all set the agenda for the next year, announce shinier, sleeker and ever lovelier devices.

2011 was no exception.  Prior to the conference, Nokia (still the world’s biggest mobile device manufacturer) announced a new partnership with Microsoft, which may see the company’s long-standing devotion to it’s Symbian operating system, shift in favour of the widely-praised Windows 7 for mobile.

After the success of the iPad, every company which can muster the technology announced new tablets, slates, pad or other similarly named large touch screen devices – with Google announcing (and demonstrating) the new tablet-specific version of its Android operating system, the adorably nicknamed ‘Honeycomb’.

NFC or Near Field Communications was another buzzword at this year’s show.  It’s a very short range radio protocol, which allows devices (like mobile phones) to communicate with unpowered devices such as posters, key fobs, stickers or bank cards.  This makes passing information much simpler and opens up a huge range of new possibilities for marketing, commerce, banking and ‘stuff’ we’ve not thought of quite yet.

Believe it or not, 3D was also on show throughout the congress.  Several companies were touting tablets, phones and software that allowed users to take 3D photos or video, watch 3D movies, or zoom through 3D menus, all on their mobile device.

The content side of the industry is no longer a peculiar little offshoot to the proper congress either.  Apps, App Markets, games and software are now firmly part of the overall event.  Angry Birds, the game which seemed to set the world on fire in 2010, picked up both the App of the Year and Best Mobile App awards from Jonathan Ross at the ‘glittering’ GSM Awards.

Even Apple joined in the fun, discarding their normal aloof attitude to the event and announcing that they’ll be allowing app providers to create in-app purchases.  This idea is getting a lot of developers and publishers a little hot under the collar, as it means that users can buy new content or whole new apps from inside one they’ve previously downloaded.  This opens up a whole new raft of possibilities for developers, such as subscription models, micro payments for new content or generally giving away basic versions of an App, then charging for extra bits.  Of course Google and Microsoft also have this type of ability in the pipeline, so the future of buying Apps might get very interesting indeed.

Brian McNicoll, managing director of development studio Dynamo Games, said, “After attending the MWC, the biggest impact any company made in my opinion was Google with their Android OS. Android was huge at the conference – they were everywhere and have completely won most people over now for mass market. They had loads of promotional ideas such as pin badges, little plastic droid-men, free drinks, sweeties etc that went down a storm. For a marketing exercise it was one of the best I have seen, with every second stand having something connected to Android and I think this platform is set to really take off this year with the surge in new devices using the OS.”

All in all, the 2011 MWC showed that far from being a staid, middle-of-the-road, mature technology, it is, in many ways, still far out on the cutting edge of the future…

…apart from 3D, that’s clearly nonsense.

But here’s the latest and an update for those of you who have yet to discover the wonder. Groupon, the Chicago based start-up that launched two years ago, works with local businesses to offer steep discounts on services and products such as beauty treatments and meals, if enough users pledge to buy them.

Last year, it was dubbed by Forbes Magazine as “the fastest-growing company ever”, having expanded from the US to 35 countries. It claims to have grown its subscribers by 2,500%, from two million to more than 50 million over the past year, including moi.

In December, Google was in talks to buy Groupon for $6bn, which would have been its largest investment to date. However, such talks fell through after Groupon rejected the bid.

Nevertheless, the social commerce site has announced it has completed a $950m (£610m) round of financing as it prepares to expand globally. The financing comes from a number of venture capital firms and late-stage investors, including Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which recently topped up its investment in Facebook, valuing the social networking site at $50bn.

DST, which also has stakes in online games company Zynga, led a $135m investment round in Groupon in April last year. On top of this, the Russian investor is also in talks to invest in Twitter, according to a report in The Sunday Times.

It would seem that online offerings are only to get stronger and in doing so can do wonders for small independent businesses to boost their digital pr, as well as boosting the contents of your purse. Afterall, shouldn’t everyone have a voice on the internet?

Sean & Joanne, who run Taste, the sandwich shop across from our office have earned themselves a reputation around here. Everyone is talking about them. If you’ve grown up in Scotland and spent your life trying to avoid “getting a reputation” you might think that statement is a negative. Think again.

Taste serve great food but where they stand out from the crowd is in the friendly customer service they offer. They greet me by name, they remember that I like a soft roll instead of a crunchy one and they actually listen when they enquire about my day. Their sandwich shop is always busy because they have the whole package, great food, reasonable prices and most importantly they care about their customers and in doing so are earning a good reputation. They don’t have a website or promote their business in a digital way, word of mouth is their most powerful tool and it’s working because they remember to focus on the customer.

Transfer this scenario to your own business. Who is managing your reputation? Do you have a digital public relations strategy? How can you engage with a large audience and generate business? The world of PR has been changing over the last few years to embrace the powerful effect of social networking and step forward from traditional broadcast and media. The volume has been turned to high on word of mouth as consumers can quickly research your brand with the help of google, social networks, forums as well as traditional press. Are people talking about you? Are they saying positive things? Worse still, are they saying nothing?

Silence may be golden but when it comes to generating business, driving traffic, promoting a brand and building an excellent reputation, focusing on the consumer should be your priority. The rest, we can look after for you.

Taste Sandwich Bar,

387 Great Western Rd, Glasgow, 0141 337 6888

Tweet

Trey Pennington is a marketing professional, speaker, author and fondly regarded as a true Southern gent.

What inspires you?
As a story prospector and professional speaker, it’s my joy to help people discover, develop, and deliver their own story. Story is a fabulous way to connect people to people, foster community, and encourage openly embracing others, especially those who are “different.” I use “prospector” because I believe every person has a story the world needs to hear—it just may be buried as hidden treasure. It’s a thrill to search for and help others find their own hidden treasure.

In your opinion what are the biggest issues that digital could be used to address?
When I saw my United States Congressman, shortly after the 2008 US general election, using digital exclusively for self-promotion and wantonly ignoring his fans and constituents, I asked him, through his public Twitter stream, to help us understand his purpose for being online. A twitterstorm broke out and he soon called for a public roundtable to discuss social media. He invited me to speak.  So, taking my opportunity to make my biggest point possible, I said, “Dr. King would be unimpressed. Electing a black man to be President of the United States does not fulfill his vision.
However, we have a unique opportunity, right now, to truly fulfill his dream. Social media blasts through the artificial barriers separating neighbors from each other—unnecessary distinctions between race, creed, origin, personal preferences. We stand on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation or longer opportunity to examine our presuppositions—our assumptions about the way things are and how they can be—and redefine what it means to be a member of a community.”

People laughed. I was ridiculed for bringing Dr. King’s lofty goal into a discussion about social media. Given the chance, I’d do it all over again. I truly believe social media affords us a window of opportunity we should seize. Now we can tear down walls of separation between people and create a new sense of community—where we intentionally embrace our neighbors and purposefully contribute to their success, regardless of what they look like or where they’re from.

Who/ What is the next big thing?
Two big topics seem to dominate the discussion of emerging technology: ROI and SEO. I’ll leave ROI for another day (it’s really not the next big thing anyway). Right now, SEO focuses on what you have to say about yourself. SEO experts teach folks who to create content that’s search engine friendly so they can appear on the first page of Google search results. Very soon,where you place on Google (or the other search others) will NOT be what you say about yourself,
but will, instead, be based upon what OTHERS say about you. As soon as that next big thing happens, maybe companies will stop it with the non-stop self-promotion and turn their attention away from themselves and to the people they claim to serve.

The best advice I was ever given ….
Struggling politicians routinely tell me, “We just gotta get our message out there.” Apparently, they think that if the world thought their thoughts, the world would be a better place. In one coffee shop meeting with a failing candidate, I let his protest, “We just gotta get our message out there,” go by three times. When he said it the fourth time, he ignited the solid rocket boosters on my passion: “No. You do NOT need to get your message out. You ARE getting it out, and that’s your problem. You don’t need to get a message OUT; you need to get a message IN. Stop talking and start listening.” He didn’t. He should have. He lost, finished in 6th place out of 8 candidates.

In 5 years time

In five years, I seriously doubt anyone will be talking about social media. It’s just as likely Facebook and Twitter will have come and gone as it is they’re still around. In five years, it won’t really matter. By then, all the social media experts will have been absorbed into the workforce in other capacities or will be drawing unemployment or receiving other government aid. Hopefully, we’ll be talking about solving real problems through technology and using technology to create a better future for more people than we can even imagine today. Hopefully.

http://treypennington.com
http://twitter.com/treypennington

*Image is All rights reserved by drtreypennington

No i’m not talking about getting all mucky on your hands and knees growing your own veg. I’m referring to natural search results and the fact they yield more leads compared to pay per click ads.

Only 26% of searchers click on Google’s sponsored links and the figure is 39% across all search engines. The eyetrack study clearly shows that search engine visibility in the natural results is twice as valuable as a sponsored link or an ad.

The OneUp Web study shows that when a website appears on the first page of a Google search result, they can expect exponential increases in traffic and conversion rates.

Thus you can achieve more viewership and more click throughs from organic search results than you can with pay per click ads.

And so, if you’re not getting results and ROI from your website, you need an effective online pr strategy to build up your search engine visibility and brand recognition.

Whilst being on page one in the search engines is an important aspect of a companies online pr profile, online news sites like Yahoo! News and Google News and getting coverage in blogs and social news websites have also become an essential part of a successful online pr strategy.

Its a given right to most. Well not entirely.

First it was China. Following the deadly riots of last summer, its central government took the usual steps to block its’ citizens from accessing foreign web services. Aside from crippling internet service in general, the authorities blocked Twitter, removed unapproved references to the violence from search engines and barred access to Facebook altogether. This was two weeks after the government had already blocked just about every Google service, including communication tools like Gmail, Google Apps and Google Talk.

These actions have been mirrored in the recent activity in Pakistan. Their government has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube because of its “growing sacrilegious content.” Access to social networking site Facebook has also been barred as part of a crackdown on websites seen to be hosting un-Islamic content.

On Wednesday a Pakistani court ordered Facebook to be blocked because of a page inviting people to draw images of the Prophet Muhammad.

However, correspondents say it remains to be seen how successful the new bans will be in Pakistan and whether citizens find a way round them. 

There are ways to duck underneath a ban – most commonly by accessing the internet via a “proxy” server based abroad. This can fool an ISP into thinking a computer is actually based in another country and therefore not subject to the ban.

YouTube says it is “looking into the matter and working to ensure that the service is restored as soon as possible”. The site was briefly blocked in Pakistan in 2008 – ostensibly for carrying material deemed offensive to Muslims.

Facebook said in a statement that it would take action if any content “becomes an attack on anyone, including Muslim people”, but that in this case its policies were not violated.

“Facebook values free speech and enables people to express their feelings about a multitude of topics, even some that others may find distasteful or ignorant,” the statement said.

Alternatively, the Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said about the page, “Such malicious and insulting attacks hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and cannot be accepted under the garb of freedom of expression.”

These examples only magnify the growing importance of these sites. They steer worldwide discussion and are charged with information that covers almost everything and reaches almost everyone. It’s where people sit up and listen and when galvanised, make their mark. If you’re to make your mark, just make sure you have a trusted and experienced digital PR team behind you.